Forgotten Books: When the Devil Came to Endless - Charles Boeckman

I've become a big fan of Charles Boeckman's Western pulp stories over the past couple of years, but WHEN THE DEVIL CAME TO ENDLESS is the first Western novel of his that I've read. Published by Avalon in 1996, it came out long after the pulp era was over, but it shows that Boeckman had lost none of his top-notch storytelling ability.

Endless is a small town in West Texas, and as the book opens, a huge, deadly tornado is bearing down on it. The twister strikes with incredible force, devastating the town and leaving death and destruction in its wake.

Then, Boeckman spends the first half of the book using flashbacks to give us the stories of several people affected by the tornado: the young man convicted of a murder he didn't commit; the preacher's daughter who's in love with him; the preacher facing the greatest test of his faith he's ever known; the scheming banker; the firebrand newspaper editor, and several other citizens of Endless. Boeckman skillfully makes all of these into well-rounded characters instead of the stereotypes they might have been. They all have plenty of problems before the tornado strikes, but things are going to get worse, because just as the town is starting to clean up after the storm, a mysterious stranger rides in and brings even more danger...

WHEN THE DEVIL CAME TO ENDLESS is a really well-paced book that kept me turning the pages all the way to its very satisfying conclusion. In addition to being a fine traditional Western novel, it's also a fairly clued murder mystery, and Boeckman handles both elements well. The setting also rings true, as anyone who's spent some time in West Texas will know.

I believe Amazon bought Avalon's inventory a while back, but this one doesn't seem to be in print. Used copies are available on-line, though. It's excellent work from a top professional and gets a high recommendation from me.

Snatched! - Charles Boeckman

Over the past year or so I've become a big fan of the work of Charles Boeckman and even published a volume of hisWestern pulp stories (which if you're a Western fan and haven't read it yet, you should because they're really good). He's still a working novelist in his nineties and turning out top-notch work. His latest mystery novel is SNATCHED!, published by Pro Se Press, and it's the sort of suspenseful, fast-moving yarn I've come to expect from Boeckman.

Set on the Texas Gulf Coast, SNATCHED! is a classic private eye novel about detectives Kate McHaney and Craig Dawson, formerly married, now divorced, but still business partners. They're hired to find the kidnapped daughter of the mayor of the town where they live, a case that leads to multiple murders, shootouts (like many a Western hero, Craig Dawson is a two-gun man and doesn't hesitate to start blazing away, as that fine cover demonstrates), organized crime, and even an ambush by a World War I bi-plane.

This is a thoroughly entertaining novel that moves very swiftly through its complex plot. Kate and Craig are likable protagonists, and Boeckman does a fine job with the refreshingly different setting. If you're a mystery fan, this one is well worth reading.

Now Available: Blazing Trails and Western Tales - Charles Boeckman/Who is Elizabeth? - Patti Boeckman

Rough Edges Press is proud to announce the release of two new books from a pair of legendary writers, Charles and Patti Boeckman:

Cover by Laura Givens

BLAZING TRAILS AND WESTERN TALES

From gunsmoke-laced shootouts in cantinas and saloons to desperate nighttime dashes across the Rio Grande to the quiet, heartfelt courage of men backed into a corner and faced with overwhelming odds, Charles Boeckman's classic stories of the Texas frontier are filled with everything that makes the Old West exciting!

Writing under the name Charles Beckman Jr., Charles Boeckman filled the pages of vintage Western pulp magazines such as STAR WESTERN and DIME WESTERN with colorful tales of action, adventure, and romance. With authentic settings and compelling characters, these stories are some of the best from the pulp era.

Rough Edges Press is proud to present BLAZING TRAILS AND WESTERN TALES, a new collection of eight novellas and short stories by Charles Boeckman originally published between 1949 and 1957. These tales from one of the master storytellers of the Old West have never been reprinted until now.

Cover by Livia J. Washburn

WHO IS ELIZABETH?

Pit a feisty, she-cat against a reluctant interloper and watch the sparks fly.

When Elizabeth McDaniel's reclusive, sheltered existence on her grandfather's farm is invaded by Derek Huston, she cannot possibly imagine the stunning result of his intrusion into her life. And he has no idea how enchanted he will become with the lovely, spit-fire redhead who demonstrates her dead-eye, rifle aim on their first encounter.

Their first clash of wills precedes a budding romance, the flowering of Elizabeth's musical talents with a guitar provided by Derek, and Derek's acceptance into the family. No one suspects that Derek has a hidden agenda so explosive that, when revealed, it turns Elizabeth's world upside down and her image of herself inside out.

No longer able to trust Derek on any level, she erases him from her life and from her heart.

Is there any hope that Derek can regain her confidence and her love?

Find out in this delightful, warm, touching, compelling account of two people whose lives are dramatically changed by each other and who have to sort through the rubble of their existence before they can know if they have a future together.

I enjoyed editing both of these books. Charles is one of the great Western pulp storytellers and these are fine examples of his work. Patti's novel really kept me turning the pages because of her skill at creating characters the reader cares about.

Below the links are the covers of some of the Western pulps in which Charles's stories in this volume originally appeared.

BLAZING TRAILS AND WESTERN TALES e-book at Amazon

BLAZING TRAILS AND WESTERN TALES trade paperback at Amazon

BLAZING TRAILS AND WESTERN TALES e-book at Barnes & Noble

BLAZING TRAILS AND WESTERN TALES e-book at Smashwords

WHO IS ELIZABETH? e-book at Amazon

WHO IS ELIZABETH? trade paperback at Amazon

WHO IS ELIZABETH? e-book at Barnes & Noble

WHO IS ELIZABETH? e-book at Smashwords

Monday Morning Digest Magazine: Manhunt, January 1953

This is the first issue of the iconic crime fiction magazine, and it's also an issue I used to own. I read it about twenty years ago. And what an issue it is, with part one of a serial by Mickey Spillane and stories by William Irish (Cornell Woolrich), Kenneth Millar (better known as Ross Macdonald), a Shell Scott story by Richard S. Prather, Evan Hunter, and Frank Kane. Oddly enough, considering that all-star line-up, the story I remember liking the best was a novelette by the now largely forgotten Floyd Mahannah. But here's what really interests me about this issue now: there's another story, and it's by none other than Charles Beckman Jr., also known as Charles Boeckman, still alive, still writing, and a pulp legend I'm proud to call my friend, something that never would have entered my mind when I read this issue all those years ago.

Forgotten Books: Saddles, Sixguns & Shootouts - Charles Beckman, Jr. (Charles Boeckman)

Charles Boeckman is one of the few genuine pulp authors still with us, and it's quite possible he's the only one still actively writing and publishing. Writing under the name Charles Beckman Jr., he was a prolific contributor to the Western and detective pulps during the late Forties through the Fifties and has written many novels since then.

SADDLES, SIX-GUNS & SHOOTOUTS is a collection of his stories from the Western pulps, and it's a fine introduction to his work for anyone who hasn't sampled it yet. Since the book came out earlier this year, it isn't really forgotten, but since Boeckman's writing isn't nearly as well known as it should be, I think we can stretch the definition that far.

The opening story, the novelette "Brazos Woman" (STAR WESTERN, October 1953) is an epic in miniature, with enough plot for a lengthy historical novel. Beautiful widow Renee D'Aquin flees New Orleans in the 1820s with her two young children and heads for Stephen F. Austin's new colony in Texas. Along the way she encounters a rakish gambler who will move in and out of her life over the next decade. In Texas Renee has to battle against sickness, savage Indians, and finally the tragedy and heroism of the Texas Revolution, culminating with the Runaway Scrape and the Texans' victorious last battle against Santa Anna's army at San Jacinto. As you might expect, with this much going on the pace never slows down much. Boeckman does a good job with the setting, and Renee and the gambler Joseph Smith are both excellent characters complete with human flaws.

"Badman From Boston" (FIFTEEN WESTERN TALES, January 1947) finds a crippled Easterner trying to recuperate from tuberculosis in the dry climate out west so he can have an operation that might enable him to walk again. An avid reader of dime novels, he spins some yarns of his own that put him in the position of having to pick up a gun and take on some outlaws. This is a fine, poignant tale.

"Rusty Guns", from the March 1947 issue of FIFTEEN WESTERN TALES, asks a question you don't encounter very often in Westerns: what happens to a gunfighter who faces off against someone faster on the draw but survives the resulting shootout? This noirish tale provides a very effective answer.

"The Kid Comes Back" (NEW WESTERN, January 1952) is a revenge tale about a young man who returns home to settle the score against the cattle baron responsible for his father's death. That's a pretty standard plot, but the method the hero chooses to get his vengeance is pretty unusual, and so is the twist at the very end of the story. Those things make this an excellent yarn.

"The Last Bullet", from the May 1954 issue of FIFTEEN WESTERN TALES starts where many stories would end: with a posse gunning down the notorious outlaw and killer Jimmy Laredo. In Boeckman's West, though, not everything is as it seems, so that's just the beginning of a very hardboiled tale of love and vengeance.

"Stagecoach to Hell" (WESTERN ACE HIGH STORIES, April 1954) is about a former badman who has made a new life for himself in a small town, until his past is about to catch up to him in the form of an old enemy who wants him dead. It's a standard plot, but this story is distinguished by some good writing and a particularly touching ending.

"Home is the Killer", from the March 1953 issue of FIFTEEN WESTERN TALES, is set in the days soon after the Civil War when Texas was a particularly hard place to survive. A returning soldier helps out a widow and her son and finds himself chasing a dream that his own violent past may not let him catch.

Bull Hubler, the protagonist of "Bitter Reunion at Rimcock" (10 STORY WESTERN, May 1947) is the sheriff of Rimrock and a successful businessman who operates a freight company, but he's also a moody drunk whose wife left him several years earlier to run away with a gambler. Now she's back with a proposition that means either redemption or death for Bull.

"The Devil's Deadline" (.44 WESTERN, January 1954) features an offbeat protagonist: an aging newspaperman who has to decide if he wants to take on the corrupt lawman who rules a small frontier town. This story is also unusual in that Boeckman comes up with an unexpected way of resolving the conflict, and this twist provides a very satisfactory ending.

This volume comes to a rousing conclusion with "Hell's Cargo", a novelette from the September 1956 issue of ACTION PACKED WESTERN. As you might guess from the title, it's a riverboat yarn, as ace river pilot Steve Kent returns to New Orleans right after the Civil War to settle a score with his former mentor, who has stolen both fiancée and riverboat from Steve. But instead he finds himself in a race with his sworn enemy to see which man's boat can retrieve a fortune in furs from Fort Benton, high up the Missouri River. That the owner of the furs is a beautiful blonde is an added complication. Boeckman really pulls out the stops in this one, which action galore and just enough romance. It's my favorite story in the book and would have made a great John Wayne movie.

A while back I mentioned that despite the claims of some, there are still a lot of great stories in the pulps just waiting to be reprinted. SADDLES, SIXGUNS & SHOOTOUTS is vivid proof of that. Boeckman really should have had some collections of his work published by Leisure, Five Star, etc., so more people would be familiar with it. Even a long-time Western pulp fan like me hadn't really heard of him until a year or so ago. Thank goodness his stories have made a comeback, with a collection of his mystery and detective yarns and several novels currently available. I hope this is just the first collection of his Westerns with more to come, because it's one of the best books I've read this year.

Now Available: Saddles, Sixguns & Shootouts - Charles Beckman Jr.

Whether it was matters of love, revenge, range wars, or shootouts, the Wild West always seems larger than life. It was a time of do-it-yourself justice, when no wrong was left unpunished, no damsel in distress lacked for defenders, and no gunslinger dared turn his back on an enemy. At least, that’s the way it’s portrayed in the tales that really grab us by the heart. Danger lurks behind every bush; the town saloon is the stage for gambling, drinking, womanizing, and deadly confrontations. And we always root for the good guy. Hop on your imaginary steed and ride along for a trip back to those frontier days with Charles Boeckman, writing as Charles Beckman, Jr., in this collection of 12 vintage pulp stories filled with characters so human that you feel you’re witnessing these stories live and that you have a stake in the outcome of the action. You’ll get into the minds of those cowpokes who had to make instantaneous decisions about who deserved to live or die. Through them, you will feel the scorching heat of the summer prairies, the longing for love, the driving force of their ego when challenged by a foe, the insecurities they stomp down and try to deny, the raging anger of the need for revenge, the cunning required to outwit the foe. Tales of the old West, with their universal appeal, are always fun to read. So grab your Stetson, put on your spurs, and have a great time with these top-notch stories from a master writer.

I don't know about you, but I can't pass up a collection of pulp stories by one of the few real pulp authors still with us. I'm really looking forward to reading this one.

Coming Soon: Saddles, Sixguns & Shootouts - Charles Beckman, Jr.

Charles and Patti Boeckman are putting together a collection of Charles's stories from the Western pulps, which were published under the name Charles Beckman, Jr. I'll have more information about this one as it becomes available, but for now, here's the cover. I haven't read much of Charles's work yet, but what I've read has been excellent.

Forgotten Books: Honky-Tonk Girl - Charles Beckman Jr. (Charles Boeckman)

After becoming acquainted with author Charles Boeckman through this blog and the WesternPulps and Pulpmags Yahoo groups, I've been wanting to read some of his work, so I started with HONKY-TONK GIRL, a rare digest novel from 1953 that's found new life in e-book and trade paperback editions from Wildside Press.

In addition to being a writer, Boeckman is also a well-known jazz musician, and jazz plays a big part in this novel. The protagonist is bandleader and trumpeter Johnny Nickles, whose combo is playing at a club in an unnamed West Coast city that I took to be San Diego. The group has been dogged by tragedy: their arranger has died recently of a heart attack, and as the novel opens their piano player has just been shot to death. The only witness is a beautiful blond singer who develops amnesia due to the shock of seeing the murder. The killer wants her dead anyway, of course, and Johnny not only wants to see his friend's murderer caught but also falls in love with the blonde, making a collision between him and the killer inevitable. There's also a beautiful hooker with a secret, a crooked sheriff, the local crime boss whose daughter may have been there when the murder took place, and numerous other characters who frequent Honky Tonk Street.

This is a really fine hardboiled crime novel with several murders, some close calls for Johnny, and a nice twisty plot. But what really makes it special is the writing. Boeckman captures the seedy glamour of dimly-lit nightclubs filled with smoke, whiskey fumes, and cool jazz about as well as anyone I've read. Music is a character in this novel, and a somewhat sinister one, too, in the form of the Ghost Album, a set of records on which Johnny and his band perform in the style of famous musicians who are dead and gone. Ever since then bad luck has followed the band, leading Johnny to wonder if they're cursed. Using this backdrop, Boeckman achieves a high level of suspense throughout the book.

HONKY-TONK GIRL really should have been made into a movie directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring Tom Neal. That's the kind of yarn it is. I enjoyed this novel a lot and give it a high recommendation. I'm looking forward to reading more of Charles Boeckman's work.

Now Available: Suspense, Suspicion & Shockers - Charles Beckman, Jr. (Charles Boeckman)

From Vintage Pulps to Hitchcock, jump aboard for a fascinating ride as you flip through the pages of 24 tales of Suspense, Suspicion, and Shockers, by none other than Charles Boeckman. Writing as Charles Beckman, Jr., starting in 1945, he whipped out stories that mislead, conceal, and surprise, with characters so real they jump off the page. His stories have such raw emotional appeal that some will make you cringe, some will make you shudder, some will grip you with their suspense, but all will make you feel. You'll meet gritty characters to love and hate, dames to put on a pedestal and some you'd like to choke, loyal friends and scoundrels, loveable dimwits and cunning backstabbers, deadly rattlesnakes, dangerous situations, and plots that keep you turning the page. In his stories with a musical background, you'll feel the beat of the music taken from the pages of Boeckman's own life experiences as a horn man. If you like vintage pulp detective, crime, and suspense stories, this is the right book for you. If you like Alfred Hitchcock suspense and surprise endings, this is the right book for you. If you just plain like to read, this is also the right book for you. What's not to like about such stories? They are so much fun! Editorial comments: "We need more stories like yours that have a strong emotional tone." ~Mike Tilden, legendary editor at Popular Publications UNIQUE ANTHOLOGY. THIS IS THE ONLY COLLECTION OF CHARLES BOECKMAN STORIES UNDER ONE COVER.