The fine folks at Whipcrack Westerns are back with a handsome reprint of another vintage Western novel. Richard Jessup’s TEXAS OUTLAW was published by Gold Medal in 1958. It’s an excellent, slightly offbeat yarn that’s well-deserving of this new edition.
TEXAS OUTLAW is set in the West Texas town of Fury, and the action in it takes place in the span of 24 hours, a technique that I really enjoy. We have a large cast of characters: a tough, gunswift, veteran sheriff who worries that he might be slowing down a little; a male schoolteacher who is also tough and surprisingly gun-handy; a beautiful young woman who runs the local café; a young gunfighter who wanted to be a doctor (the Texas Outlaw of the title); a gang of would-be bank robbers; a down-on-his-luck, hardscrabble rancher and his children, including a beautiful daughter; and a vicious Comanche war chief out to make a name for himself.
Of course, the storylines involving these characters all intertwine. Much gunplay ensues and a lot of blood is spilled. There are emotional confrontations, as well. Jessup does a superb job of balancing all these elements and creating enough suspense that I was really flipping the pages in the final third of the book to find out what was going to happen.
Several years ago, I read one of Jessup’s thrillers and didn’t care much for it. But TEXAS OUTLAW is a terrific Western, an ensemble piece where all the various parts fit together perfectly and form a thrilling, well-written story. I know I have other Westerns by Jessup on my shelves. Might be time to look for them. For now, though, if you’re a Western fan, I give TEXAS OUTLAW a high recommendation. You can get the brand-new Whipcrack edition in paperback on Amazon.
