This is a pulp that I own and read recently (sort of—more on that below). That’s my copy in the scan. The cover art is by A. Leslie Ross. I would have known that even if Ross hadn’t been credited on the Table of Contents. That’s a Ross hat! I always like his covers on pulps and paperbacks, and this one is no exception. I think it’s fine.
The lead novella, “Lone-Wolf Foreman”, is bylined Mat Rand, and it really is almost long enough to be considered an actual novel. Mat Rand was a house-name used frequently in Columbia Publications pulps, and the author of this one hasn’t been identified. It has some decent plot elements: a big ranch owned by a beautiful young woman, a villainous foreman who can’t be trusted, a stalwart mining engineer, a fabulously valuable mine that’s actually a swindle (or is it?), and a colorful old codger. Unfortunately, the writing is just terrible. We get page after page of repetitive dialogue that serves no real purpose except to fill up pages, a few clunky action scenes, and narrative that has to be reread to try to figure out what’s going on. I stuck with this one for the first half of the story hoping it would get better, but it never did and I skimmed the rest, reading the last four or five pages to get some sense of closure. But all that got me was one of the limpest, least dramatic endings I’ve ever read. I worry sometimes that I’m too easy on the pulps I read and like them just because they’re old, but then I run across a yarn like this and realize that bad is bad, no matter when it was published, and I can still recognize that. This is maybe the worst Western pulp story I’ve ever read.
“Lone-Wolf Foreman” is long enough that there are only two short stories
backing it up, and they had nowhere to go but up. “Satan’s Bullet Trio” by
Charles D. Richardson Jr. is about three outlaws who pretend to be lawmen in
order to rob a money shipment from a bank. Not surprisingly, the scheme doesn’t
work out exactly how they expect it to. This is a pretty well-written story,
but a couple of plot twists stretch credibility a little too far.
“Candidate for Boothill” by T.W. Ford wraps up the issue, and it’s by far the
best of the three. In this story, an easy-going young cowboy gets on the bad
side of an arrogant rancher and winds up being framed for a stagecoach holdup
and shooting a marshal. The action takes place in one frantic, breakneck night
as the protagonist tries to escape the posse that’s after him and clear his
name. Ford was a pretty consistent writer and a good storyteller, and while
this yarn is really nothing special, I found it pretty entertaining.
So, is this the worst Western pulp I’ve ever read? Given the length of the Mat
Rand story and how bad it is, I’d have to say that’s right. If you happen to
have a copy, I’d advise admiring the A. Leslie Ross cover, reading the T.W.
Ford story, and then putting it back on the shelf. They can’t all be winners.
No comments:
Post a Comment