Nothing But a Drifter - Lee Hoffman

A couple of weeks ago, a friend emailed me to ask my opinion of Western writer Lee Hoffman, who was a well-known science fiction fan and fanzine editor before she began writing Western novels in the Sixties. I knew I’d read one novel by Hoffman but had to look up her books before I recalled which one. It turned out to be her first novel, THE LEGEND OF BLACKJACK SAM, and I read it more than fifty years ago when it came out. I also recalled that I thought it was okay, but I never read anything else by her, possibly because it was a comedic Western, and as I’ve mentioned many times, those usually don’t work for me unless they’re by W.C. Tuttle or Robert E. Howard.

However, Hoffman’s 1976 novel NOTHING BUT A DRIFTER is available as an e-book on Kindle Unlimited, and since I know that her work is generally well-regarded, I decided it was time to read another of her novels and see what I thought about it now.

The drifter of the title is a Texas cowboy named Brian who finds himself in Wyoming or Montana (Hoffman never specifies the setting, but that’s the impression I got) looking for a riding job. He encounters another Texan, a rancher who has moved north with his Swedish wife, their beautiful daughter, and two sons, and started a small spread. When an accident on the range leaves the man laid up for a while, Brian agrees to stay on and help keep the ranch running.

If you’ve ever read any Westerns, you know things aren’t going to work out that simply. Soon, Brian finds himself up to his neck in rustling, a possible range war, a threat of trouble with the local Indians, and a romantic rivalry over the rancher’s beautiful daughter with a neighboring cattleman who’s ruthless enough to stop at nothing to get what he wants. As you can tell from that description, NOTHING BUT A DRIFTER is a pretty traditional Western.

It’s also a very well-written one, and if the plot twists that Hoffman adds don’t come as huge surprises, they still work well and are quite satisfying. And some of the twists I was expecting didn’t come about, which is a nice surprise in itself. This book leans toward the low-key, more realistic side of the scale, more Elmer Kelton than Ed Earl Repp, and Hoffman does a fine job with it. The action is a little sparse until late in the book, but there’s plenty of suspense and the slam-bang ending is worth waiting for.

Overall, I’m glad I gave Lee Hoffman another chance because NOTHING BUT A DRIFTER is a terrific book and thoroughly entertaining. It was published originally in hardback by Doubleday in 1976 as part of the Double D line, reprinted in paperback by Leisure in 2010, and is still available in paperback and e-book editions. As soon as I finished it, I immediately ordered another Lee Hoffman novel, LOCO, the one my friend recommended to me. I’m looking forward to reading it.