This is a pulp that I own and read recently. That’s my copy in the scan. The art is by Sam Cherry, as usual during this era of TEXAS RANGERS. What’s a little unusual is that it depicts a scene in the issue’s lead novel, which didn’t happen often on the covers of Western pulps. I don’t know if Cherry actually read this issue’s Jim Hatfield novel or the editor or art director told him about the scene, but either way, it’s quite effective.
That lead novel, “The Deepest Grave”, is a good one, too. Texas Ranger Jim
Hatfield is sent to the Big Bend area of Texas to investigate the disappearance
of a young Ranger assigned to uncover the thieves behind a high-grading scheme
at a gold mine. The trail leads Hatfield to the mining boomtown of LaPlata, but
only after he’s ambushed and suffers an arm wound, an injury that bothers him
for the remainder of this novel, which is also an unusual touch. The story
barrels along with almost non-stop action and features some suspenseful scenes
in a mine shaft hundreds of feet under the ground. According to the Fictionmags
Index, the author of this yarn is Walker A. Tompkins, and while it’s sometimes difficult
to tell the difference between the Hatfield novels by Tompkins and the ones
penned by Peter Germano, I agree that this one certainly reads like Tompkins’
work. It’s a really solid, enjoyable Jim Hatfield novel.
“Half a Solid Gold Mountain” isn’t exactly a comedy, but the first-person
narration has a bit of a lighthearted touch about it that works pretty well.
This tale of the dangerous encounter between a prospector and a gang of Mexican
bandits along the border is by Frank Scott York. I don’t know anything about
the author except that he wrote about three dozen Western and detective yarns
for the pulps during the mid-Fifties. This one isn’t a lost gem, but it’s
enjoyable.
I don’t know anything about H.G. Ashburn, either, except that he published
about a dozen stories in various Western pulps during a short career in the
mid-Fifties. His story “The Last Attack” in this issue is the first of those
yarns. It’s a good story about a fast gun with a bad ticker and an unusual
resolution to a gunfight. I liked it.
I’ve mentioned many times that I don’t care for the Jim Hatfield novels that
Roe Richmond wrote under the Jackson Cole house-name. But in recent years, I’ve
come to enjoy his stand-alone Western stories under his own name. His novelette
in this issue, “Pretty Devil”, is really good. Two former Confederate officers,
Sid Conister and Rip Razee, left homeless and broke by the war and
Reconstruction, head west to Arizona Territory so Conister can claim part-ownership
in a ranch, an interest he inherited from his late wife. When they get there,
they find themselves immersed in troubles right out of a Southern Gothic: lurid
secrets, hidden crimes, rampaging emotions. Richmond packs enough back-story
and plot into this one that it could have been a full-length novel. And actually,
it might have been better at that length with more room to develop the
complicated story. As is, it’s still great fun to read, and I’ll definitely be
on the lookout for more stories by Richmond.
“Fight or Drift” by Giles A. Lutz is a short story about a fiddle-playing
drifter with a secret. Lutz was a consistently good writer and this excellent
yarn manages to be both gritty and heartwarming.
I’ve also made a number of negative comments about the work of Ben Frank. I
generally find his humorous Westerns, including his long-running Doc Swap
series, rather unfunny. Even so, I always give his stories a try, and in “Not
the Marrying Kind”, his contribution to this issue, he proves that he can write
a lightweight but fairly straightforward Western yarn. It's the tale of a young
rancher who has to contend not only with a pretty blonde who has her sights set
on marrying him but also an escaped outlaw who blames our protagonist for him
being captured and sent to prison in the first place. It’s cleverly plotted
with Frank planting some stuff early in the story that pays off later and may
well be the best thing I’ve read by Ben Frank.
Overall, this is an outstanding issue of TEXAS RANGERS with not a bad story in
the bunch and a good Sam Cherry cover, to boot. If you have a copy on your
shelves, it’s well worth reading.
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