This is a pulp that I own. That’s my copy in the scan,
complete with store stamp. I’m not sure who did the cover art. The most likely
suspect is Richard Lyon, but I’m not confident enough to say it’s his work.
The lead novel in this issue (and it’s actually long enough to be considered a
novel this time) is “Black Diamonds” by A. Leslie, who was really A. Leslie
Scott. This novel was published in hardcover in 1942 under the title THE
COWPUNCHER, as by Bradford Scott, another of Leslie Scott’s pseudonyms. In this
century, it was published in paperback and as an e-book by Leisure, a large
print hardcover by Center Point, and remains available as an e-book and trade
paperback from Amazon Encore. I read the e-book edition a couple of weeks ago,
and you can find my review of it here. It’s an excellent Western novel. I think
I like the title “Black Diamonds” a little better than THE COWPUNCHER, though.
I suspect Scott changed it for the story’s book publication because he thought
it didn’t sound enough like a Western.
I decided to go ahead and read the three short stories from the pulp. The
first, “Fugitive”, is by Frank Carl Young, a forgotten pulpster who wrote more
than a hundred Western stories for various pulps between 1931 and 1952. I don’t
recall ever reading anything by him until now. “Fugitive” is about a young
cowboy on the run from the law who makes a home for himself working on a ranch
owned by a friendly young couple. Naturally, his past catches up to him and
causes trouble. The slight plot twist in the end of this one won’t catch many
readers by surprise, but the writing is very good and it’s an entertaining
story.
Scott Carleton was a house-name used primarily on the long-running Buffalo
Billy Bates series in POPULAR WESTERN, but it appears on a few stand-alone
stories, too, like this issue’s “Necktie Party”, about a young cowboy falsely
accused of rustling and facing a lynching. This is a pretty well-written story
for the most part, but the bit of business on which the plot ultimately turns
is just too far-fetched for me to buy it. Willing suspension of disbelief got
stretched to the breaking point in this one.
I don’t know anything about William Mahoney except that, according to the
Fictionmags Index, he published 19 stories between 1931 and 1942, most of them
in the gang pulps but with a few Westerns scattered among them. His story “Trouble
Rider” in this issue reads a little like a hardboiled crime yarn with a pretty
complicated plot and a harrowing torture scene that’s pretty strong stuff for a
Western pulp. The protagonist is a cowboy framed for the murder of a mining
tycoon in Arizona. He has to venture south of the border and get mixed up in a
scheme involving blackmail, an old crime, and Mexican politics in order to
clear his name. It’s a little offbeat, but I enjoyed it quite a bit and would
be interested in reading Mahoney’s other Western yarns, or some of his gang pulp stories, for that matter.
Overall, I’d say this is a very good issue of WEST, but that’s due mainly to
the fact that 80% of its pages are occupied by a top-notch Leslie Scott novel.
But two of the three back-up stories are entertaining, too, and the third one
has some nice lines in it even though in the end I thought it was a little
ridiculous. If you happen to have a copy of this one, it’s well worth reading.
