Brett Waring is really Keith Hetherington, one of the most
prolific writers of all time who has authored hundreds of books under several
pseudonyms, mostly (but not all) Westerns and whose wordage total probably
approaches 40 million. He’s also a very entertaining author, as WALK OUT OF
HELL proves. This novel was published originally in Australia by Cleveland and
reprinted by them in the past year or so, the edition I read.
This sounded to me like a good tough yarn, and I wasn’t disappointed. Frank Cain, wounded and battered, stumbles out of the Wildfire Mountains as the only survivor of a prospecting expedition that set out to find the Lost Spanish Mine. According to Cain, an avalanche wiped out the rest of his party, but certain things about his story don’t add up, and the situation becomes even more suspicious when the local lawman uncovers the fact that Cain spent time in prison for killing a previous prospecting partner of his—and originally claiming that an avalanche was responsible for that death, too.
Most people don’t believe Cain’s story, including his girlfriend Meg McGill, whose father was the leader of the expedition that disappeared in the Wildfires. Several local hardcases think that Cain knows where the lost mine is located and kidnap him to torture the information out of him. He gets away but is forced by the sheriff to go back into the mountains so that the lawman can get to the truth. Meg goes along as well, determined to find out what really happened to her father. And those gold-greedy outlaws are on the trail, too . . .
One of the best things about WALK OUT OF HELL is its noirish element. The reader doesn’t know until the end whether Frank Cain is hero or villain. There’s a lot of tough action along the way, and Hetherington, old pro that he is, knows how to keep a story moving at a very fast pace. His work is always worth reading, and I enjoyed this one a lot. If you’re looking for a good hardboiled Western, WALK OUT OF HELL is very much worth reading.
This sounded to me like a good tough yarn, and I wasn’t disappointed. Frank Cain, wounded and battered, stumbles out of the Wildfire Mountains as the only survivor of a prospecting expedition that set out to find the Lost Spanish Mine. According to Cain, an avalanche wiped out the rest of his party, but certain things about his story don’t add up, and the situation becomes even more suspicious when the local lawman uncovers the fact that Cain spent time in prison for killing a previous prospecting partner of his—and originally claiming that an avalanche was responsible for that death, too.
Most people don’t believe Cain’s story, including his girlfriend Meg McGill, whose father was the leader of the expedition that disappeared in the Wildfires. Several local hardcases think that Cain knows where the lost mine is located and kidnap him to torture the information out of him. He gets away but is forced by the sheriff to go back into the mountains so that the lawman can get to the truth. Meg goes along as well, determined to find out what really happened to her father. And those gold-greedy outlaws are on the trail, too . . .
One of the best things about WALK OUT OF HELL is its noirish element. The reader doesn’t know until the end whether Frank Cain is hero or villain. There’s a lot of tough action along the way, and Hetherington, old pro that he is, knows how to keep a story moving at a very fast pace. His work is always worth reading, and I enjoyed this one a lot. If you’re looking for a good hardboiled Western, WALK OUT OF HELL is very much worth reading.
6 comments:
That book sounds pretty great — and I don’t even read many westerns :)
- b.t.
I read the first part on Amazon and immediately downloaded it. Thanks for reviewing it, James.
I'll have to track down a copy of WALK OUT OF HELL. Thanks for enlightening us about Keith Hetherington.
That's my Dad. He's in he late 80's now and Sadly fighting dementia.
Even more sad is that despite being one of Cleveland's best selling authors he was paid a pittance and does not hold the rights to many of his works at all.
An attempt was made by a British company to buy the rights and reprint them but Cleveland (who have gone out of business the last few years) kept the prices too high for this the eventuate.
Dad loved writing more than anything and used to spend hours researching minute details of guns and Saddles and the like...
He'd love to hear from any liners of his work (although a reply is unlikely due to his dementia) Keith Hetherington 10 Babylon Close Buderim Queensland Australia 4556.
Thanks, Geoff. Please give him my best wishes and thanks for writing so many entertaining books.
Keith Hetherington's westerns for the Cleveland series, and his later Black Horse Westerns, never received as much exposure in the US as they rightly deserved. James, your review does a worthy service; so sorry to hear any monetary reward will probably not go to Keith. Peter, I'm sure you'll want to hunt down more by Brett Waring, Kirk Hamilton, Jake Douglas, Tyler Hatch etc. Geoff, may I add mine to James' best wishes to your father? Keith was a BHW giant during the Hale years. As well as my gratitude to him as a reader of his books, he also had my huge appreciation for his regular contributions to the blackhorsewesterns.com website where he was unstinting in sharing his thoughts on westerns and the writing life in general. Just one of the articles Rough Edges followers can still sample online is "Ringo, Fastest Pen in the West" (Black Horse Extra, December 2006).
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