Ed Cavanaugh is a down-on-his-luck rancher who leaves his
spread in drought-ridden Texas to head for Arizona with his herd of cattle,
hoping to make a new start there. But he’s still in New Mexico Territory, a
long way from Arizona, when he runs smack-dab into a barbed wire fence holding
his cattle off from water they desperately need. Cavanaugh is a law-abiding man
and doesn’t want to cut the fence, but he may have to in order to save his
livestock.
That’s how RIDE FOR VENGEANCE, a 1967 Ace Double Western by John Callahan (who
was actually Joseph Chadwick) opens, and the author immediately enlists the
reader’s sympathy for Ed Cavanaugh, who’s a fine protagonist, a decent man who can
be plenty tough and hardboiled when he’s backed into a corner. And if there’s
one thing Joseph Chadwick can do to his protagonists, it’s back them into a
corner!
That’s what happens in RIDE FOR VENGEANCE as Cavanaugh finds himself in the
middle of a range war between the big spread that’s fenced in its holdings and
the smaller ranchers adjoining it, including a pretty widow whose husband was
hanged by the cruel son of the big ranch’s manager. Cavanaugh is a widower
himself and has a four-year-old son along on the trail drive with him, which is
something of an unusual angle for a Western novel like this. In Chadwick’s
hands, it works very well, though. There’s also a romantic triangle that’s
well-handled, despite not really amounting to much, some colorful old-timers, a
few hotheaded kids, a stampede, and several bushwhackings and fistfights.
In other words, this is a very traditional Western novel with nothing in it you
haven’t read many times before and no surprises. And yet, Chadwick’s execution
of the material is almost flawless. Even though I had a pretty good idea what
was going to happen, I kept flipping the pages eagerly because I wanted to see
it play out. If Westerns are your comfort reading, as they are for me, I think
there’s a very good chance you’ll enjoy this one. I think it’s one of the best
books I’ve read this year.
By the way, that's my copy in the scan above, and the cover art is by Harry Schaare. It's Ace G-682, with the novel BANDIT BRAND by Tom West (real name Fred East) on the other side. I'm pretty sure I'll be reading that one soon, too.
