Hardcase Halloran - William Heuman

A solid hardboiled Ace Double Western from one of the most reliable authors in the genre. Gun-for-hire Thorpe Halloran sets out on a personal mission for a change, the search for the corrupt army officer responsible for the theft of a large payroll and the murder of sixteen soldiers, including Thorpe’s younger brother. Heuman mixes in a bit of a range war plot and a romantic triangle in this vengeance quest yarn and does a good job of bringing everything to a satisfactory climax with a nice shootout in a ghost town. A few bits get a little repetitive, which keeps this from landing in the top rank of Heuman’s work, but it’s still very entertaining and well worth reading. His books and stories usually have good opening lines and this one is no exception:  The way Thorpe Halloran had it figured out, a man was going to die this night. I kind of had to keep turning the pages after that.