RAWHIDE CREEK,
published as a paperback original by Ace Books in 1975, appears to have been
the final novel in L.P. Holmes' fifty year career. It's certainly not a bad way
to go out. The protagonist, Cleve Ellerson, is a down-on-his-luck hired gun who
wants to put that way of life behind him. Recuperating from a wound suffered in
a gunfight with a crooked gambler, he heads for the mining boomtown of Rawhide
Creek, figuring it might be a good place to start over. An accident leaves the
stagecoach without a driver, so Ellerson takes over the reins, meets a
good-looking young woman who's also on her way to Rawhide Creek, and comes upon
another stagecoach, headed the other way, that's been held up. Driver and
shotgun guard are both dead.
When he gets to the settlement, Ellerson winds up taking a job with the stage line and discovers that Rawhide Creek is teeming with claim jumpers and gunmen, all of them working for saloon owner Duke Ackerman. Ellerson sticks up for the honest folks of the town, which sets up an inevitable violent showdown between the forces of good and evil.
You've probably guessed by now that there's nothing in RAWHIDE CREEK that hasn't been done hundreds of times before, by Holmes and many other Western authors who were prolific pulpsters and then moved into novels with the demise of the pulps. And if you're a regular reader of this blog, you also know that I don't care. Holmes was such a good writer that he made these old plots fresh and entertaining, at least as far as I'm concerned. Cleve Ellerson is a very likable hero, his new friends (the stage line owner and an old drunk) provide fine support, the villains are numerous and suitably despicable, and the low-key romance between Ellerson and the girl from the stage (the sister of the local café owner) is sweet without being syrupy. There are a few continuity glitches that a good editor should have fixed, but other than that RAWHIDE CREEK is the same sort of top-notch work Holmes did for five decades. I had a very good time reading it. (And the scan above is the copy I read, apparently owned at some point in its life by somebody named Moats.)
When he gets to the settlement, Ellerson winds up taking a job with the stage line and discovers that Rawhide Creek is teeming with claim jumpers and gunmen, all of them working for saloon owner Duke Ackerman. Ellerson sticks up for the honest folks of the town, which sets up an inevitable violent showdown between the forces of good and evil.
You've probably guessed by now that there's nothing in RAWHIDE CREEK that hasn't been done hundreds of times before, by Holmes and many other Western authors who were prolific pulpsters and then moved into novels with the demise of the pulps. And if you're a regular reader of this blog, you also know that I don't care. Holmes was such a good writer that he made these old plots fresh and entertaining, at least as far as I'm concerned. Cleve Ellerson is a very likable hero, his new friends (the stage line owner and an old drunk) provide fine support, the villains are numerous and suitably despicable, and the low-key romance between Ellerson and the girl from the stage (the sister of the local café owner) is sweet without being syrupy. There are a few continuity glitches that a good editor should have fixed, but other than that RAWHIDE CREEK is the same sort of top-notch work Holmes did for five decades. I had a very good time reading it. (And the scan above is the copy I read, apparently owned at some point in its life by somebody named Moats.)
1 comment:
I've read a couple Westerns by L.P. Holmes over the years and enjoyed them. Time to read another!
Post a Comment