Forgotten Books: The Hungry Gun - Steve Thurman (Frank Castle)

Will Cade is a horse rancher in Arizona who’s trying to put his past as an outlaw behind him. You know how that usually turns out in Western novels, so what happens next in THE HUNGRY GUN won’t surprise many veteran Western readers. Cade’s old partner shows up, stagecoaches start getting robbed, Cade’s secrets come out and the townspeople believe he’s part of the wave of lawlessness. To complicate things even more, the saloon girl he used to love shows up, and the citizens start talking about vigilance committees. And what Cade’s old partner from the owlhoot days really wants is Will Cade dead.

THE HUNGRY GUN is a very traditional hardboiled Western published in 1967 by Paperback Library. The author, Steve Thurman, was actually the veteran pulpster, paperbacker, and tie-in writer Frank Castle. A few weeks ago, I read and posted about one of his juvenile novels written under the name Cole Fannin and featuring Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Castle is writing for adults in THE HUNGRY GUN, so it features a lot of brutal violence, sexually charged situations, and a protagonist who spends a lot of time brooding when he’s not engaged in fistfights or shootouts.

Castle got his start in the writing business by working as assistant to and ghostwriter for Western novelist Tom W. Blackburn in the same sort of set-up that Blackburn, years earlier, had with Ed Earl Repp. With that background, it’s no surprise that he knew how to spin a yarn and keep a story moving along at a good pace. THE HUNGRY GUN may not break any new ground, but it has some excellent scenes in it and I really enjoyed reading it. It’s never been reprinted, as far as I know, but if you’re a Western fan and come across a copy, it’s worth picking up.