RANCH LOVE STORIES lasted only one issue in 1950. A pretty blatant attempt by Interstate Publishing to compete with the long-running RANCH ROMANCES, it seems to have been a spectacular failure. It’s hard to understand why, though, since the lone issue had a cover by Norman Saunders and some fine writers who contributed stories.
One of those authors is Les Savage, Jr., whose novella “The Brushpopper and the
Lady” is the featured story in this issue and is almost long enough to have
been reprinted as an Ace Double. Maybe it would have been, if not for Savage’s
early and untimely death. Thanks to the good folks at the PulpGen Archive,
though, this story is available again as a downloadable PDF, and being a
long-time fan of Les Savage, Jr.’s work, I was quick to grab a copy and read
it.
As you might guess from the title, “The Brushpopper and the Lady” is set in the
South Texas chaparral country, as are several of Savage’s novels. Hugh Mitchell
is the foreman of the vast Broken Shield ranch, which was owned by an English
expatriate who was like a father to Mitchell. The man has passed away, leaving
the ranch to his niece, who comes from England to claim her inheritance. But
something about the whole situation seems wrong to Mitchell, and things are
complicated by the heiress’s wastrel cousin and a greedy gambler in the nearby
town who has his eyes on taking over the ranch himself. It doesn’t help that Mitchell
seems to be falling in love with Lady Agatha. And then the specter of murder
rears its ugly head.
This is a fast-paced yarn with plenty of action, including a couple of the brutal
fistfights for which Savage’s stories are known. The plot has several effective
twists and turns, and while I had a pretty good idea what would happen, I
wasn’t sure how things would play out until the end. The overall tone is hardboiled,
and while the romance element is fairly strong, as you’d expect from RANCH LOVE
STORIES, it never overpowers the action.
“The Brushpopper and the Lady” is a really good story. If you’re a Les Savage,
Jr. fan or just a reader of traditional Westerns, I think there’s a good chance
you’d enjoy it. I certainly did. Check it out on the PulpGen Archive.
4 comments:
I think there's too much romance for the action lovers and too much gory violence for the romance lovers, at least going by the Walker Tompkins and the Les Savage stories. Ranch Romances somehow managed to maintain a delicate balance between the two.
Still, I like it, and it's got a nice collection of authors - Savage, Tompkins, Roe Richmond et all. Worth reading.
Those are certainly good authors, all right. I agree with you about RANCH ROMANCES. It and TEXAS RANGERS were consistently the best Western pulps of the Fifties.
Though a digest and not a pulp--and once one got past the Grey reprints--ZANE GREY WESTERN MAGAZINE deserves an honorable mention...
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