I recently learned that
Grant Taylor was a pseudonym used by the prolific author Ray Nafziger, who
wrote scores of stories for the Western pulps under his own name and as Robert
Dale Denver. It was thought that Nafziger wrote only two novels, both published
under the name Robert Denver, but there are a handful of Grant Taylor novels,
and one of them, “WHIP” RYDER’S WAY, is available as part of an inexpensive
e-book collection. So I picked up a copy right away and read it recently. The
only other Nafziger novel I’ve read, HELL-ROARIN’ TEXAS TRAIL, was pretty good,
and as it turns out, so is this one.
Jim “Whip” Ryder is a young, hell-raising, fast gun cowboy in the Arizona
border country—or maybe New Mexico, Nafziger is never clear about that, but
it’s not Texas and it’s not far from the Mexican border. The time period is a
little ambiguous, too, but since there are primitive telephone and electrical
power systems, it’s probably the first decade of the 20th Century.
People still use horses and wagons for transportation, though; there’s no
mention of automobiles.
But to get back to the story, Whip’s older brother Dan (who looks almost
identical to Whip, even though they’re not twins) is a lawyer in the settlement
of Reyes. Then the bank is robbed and Whip is framed for the crime. He has to
flee into Mexico, where he teams up with a couple of other young firebrands,
Yancy Yates and Jemez McCarthy, and goes to work fighting bandits on behalf of
the American mining interests in the area. Along the way, Whip develops a
talent for disguise.
And all this is back-story, mind you.
As the novel opens, after four years as a fugitive in Mexico, Whip has figured
out a way to clear his name and returns to Reyes, with Yancy and Jemez accompanying
him, of course. In the meantime, Dan Ryder has become the district attorney and
is prosecuting one of the trio of villains who have taken over the area on a
charge of murder. The defendant supposedly knows the truth about the bank
robbery Whip was blamed for and Whip wants to get his hands on him and make him
talk. But the rest of the bad guys plan to murder his district attorney brother
before that can happen.
Whip’s old sweetheart, who owns a worthless ranch, is still around, too, and so
is a Mexican revolutionary/bandit modeled after Pancho Villa who has fled
across the border into the U.S. after the Federales crushed his rebellion. He’s
rumored to have brought several hundred thousand dollars worth of looted gold
with him. Got all that? There’s plenty in the pot for Nafziger to stir around,
and I’ve probably even forgotten a few things.
But man, does this book move! There are disguises and hidden identities galore,
shoot-outs, desperate chases, a Mexican carnival, hair’s-breadth escapes, and a
whole bunch of last-minute plot twists and revelations that probably won’t take
many modern readers by surprise but are still fun. More than anything else, the
whole thing reminds me of a late Republic Western serial, with Clayton Moore,
maybe, playing both Whip and his brother Dan. And lots of action directed by
William Witney, of course.
I’ve already rustled up another of Nafziger’s Grant Taylor novels. If they
continue to be this enjoyable, I have a hunch I may wind up reading all of
them.
