William Hopson

I don’t remember where I got this book from, but I picked it from my to-read Westerns stack because it was the thinnest book there. It was a decent classic-style Western. The hero’s blonde, tall, and hard, of course, the sort of cheese that can backfire easily and make a work unreadable, but it never gets that bad here; in fact, there are some real flashes of grim western fun. However, this novel does not feature the frontier landscape anywhere in it, which I do want to have in Westerns show more that I read.
He was a lean man of thirty-one, blond, slightly over six feet, and wolf-wary from years of riding those same midnight alleys where friends of lawless men now dead or in prison might be lurking for an ambush shot. [pg.6]
He’s also morose with the typical dead-spouse backstory:
“I buried most of my conscience in a small windswept cemetery in Arizona a long time ago. She was killed by a wild shot fired by a drunken young cowboy, who cried at her funeral the next day.” [pg.50]
I love that quote, btw.
What almost becomes a femme fatale, but she never quite gets there, and then there’s the love interest. The love interest is a collar tugger, as she’s a young woman whom the protagonist knew as a little girl (last seen when she was 9 years old) and now suddenly appears back in her life. So of course, she’s in love with him, and he wants her. Fortunately, she just appears in two major framing scenes with a sporadic glimpse here and there in the main body of the story. So, as you have already guessed, there is no character development concerning her. Her major scenes are her introduction and the end, where she ends up on the hero’s arm, essentially serving as a reward for the hero. Frankly, it seems the romance angle was forced into this story, which did not need it at all.
The weakest aspects of this book imho, are that the shootouts in this story felt too long and most ended in draws where one of both parties simply ran away, and some key murders happen off-stage! The characters also are not particularly strong; they just seem there to service the plot which is a thin ex-gang member comes back to seek “justice” (read revenge) for another former member who was seemingly murdered (why this point is drug out in the narrative I’ll never know, it was apparent and even confessed to multiple times in the story before ethe ending) by the other ex-members who are all now legitimately running a town on the edge of becoming a boomtown. Another note on the mystery of “who” shot Bud Corson (the murdered former member), everyone in town knows who the shooter is, but will not tell the hero (for various stupid reasons), so he comes off as ineffectual and a little dumb.
“It’s too late, Ladino,” he said with a strange, sad bitterness. “I’d give anything in this world to roll back time ten years, ten months---even ten weeks. But we’ve all danced, and if the fiddler from hell is coming to collect for his music, he’ll have to take all three of us; and he won’t find me crying.” [pgs.97-98]
That previous quote hints at where the author should have taken the story, in my opinion, as a reader. Where’s the bitterness and regret with all these old comrades who have cheated death and saved each other’s lives on numerous occasions? This could have been the primary source for pain and drama, but instead, a cringy non-entity is introduced as a love interest, which does not even really figure into this story at all. Oh well.
The bits where a few phrases of grim or purely western genre ephemera pop into the narrative, I dig it, that’s probably why I’ve ranked this one as high as I have. Don’t get me wrong, this story is perfectly serviceable as Westerns go. However, it’s not really a standout at all save for the quotes I’ve included. There are a few other interesting points in there, but unless you’re a die-hard reader of Westerns, I think you can skip this one.
Favorite Quote:
“My job is to win souls for my Creator, not cause them to be destroyed before they’re saved. Do you think I’d tell you who shot Bud Corson to death and have that same person’s soul blasted into eternal hell by your gunfire?” [pg.58] show less

When I picked this book up, I was expecting frantic riding through canyons, horse chases, fisticuffs, and shootouts. Hell, at least it could’ve served up some grim stoicism like [b:Invitation to a Hanging|59766446|Invitation to a Hanging|Walt A. Coburn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1638836513l/59766446._SY75_.jpg|20896881], but it doesn’t. The first third of the book is a slog where there is a lot of talking, and I do mean A LOT. The book did not show more start with properly setting the scene or anything, it just went into a discussion on the very first page. In addition, the author is terrible at transitions, he just moves from one thing and/or character to another which lost me more than once and forced me to backtrack and slow down. I HATE that! Evidently, either he knew that as well or his editor talked to him because a character clarifies the whole first two chapters in a single line of dialogue. He should’ve at least started with that if not setting the scene with descriptive text. I hated the first third of this book, but then it got gruesome, so I kept reading.
In the first third, the “hero” of the story is caught cutting off the ears of a dead warrior and this ear cutting goes through the rest of the book. But the middle section is where the brutality gets going with a full description of the Adkins massacre, the incident that fuels Bud Adkin’s (our hero) thirst for vengeance. After that, there’s a scene where a pair of hounds are found alive post-massacre with their hind legs tied and their bellies slit, so they’re put out of their misery. There is a description of “the dead lying scattered with buttons straining over swollen bodies”, a brief but graphic description of the amputation of an arm at the shoulder, and a disturbing episode with diseased horses and burning corrals. I was not expecting this level of gore and it’s a shame that the book was not better written.
The last third was easier to read leading up to the big battle, it was frankly just better written/edited. The hero does take a pretty nasty vengeance on the main villain, Black Rope, by not only defeating him in a fight but humiliating him by putting him in a squaw’s dress, not the last of his indignities before his end. This would have been much more satisfying if the villain was built up more as a character, his and his warrior’s brutal and effective tactics were just not enough as they were fighting for their ancestral land. However, the Adkin’s Massacre did paint him as a personally savage man but that served more to motivate the hero than anything else. The main problem with the inciting incident is that we’re told about it, it is gruesome, but experiencing it as a scene would have been so much more effective. Hell, if that opened the book, it would’ve hooked me immediately.
I don’t know if I’d ever recommend this book even to the most avid western-genre fan due to the garbled nature of the text in the first third and the overreliance on telling through the mouths of characters rather than showing. I don’t often harp on the “show rather than tell” mantra as in books you can tell rather than show for many reasons but here, there was a better way to go. The only redeeming quality here is the sheer brutality on show. Even the big finale battle is lackluster in its actual execution. Frankly, I think I let the title seduce me. show less

This is a solid Western tale, there is an instance of casual racism in the first handful of pages, however. Otherwise, I enjoyed this one, it is exactly what I think of as a Western. There are a few moody scenes and a few recurrent nightmare sequences. The romance, which is in trace amounts until the end, thus the woman as reward trope is in full swing here as well, serves to soften the hero as he is a cold S-O-B. The violence comes in regular doses but is not overwhelming and fits with show more cowboy-style punch-ups and pistol duels. Overall, I would recommend this one if you’re looking for a standard classical western that’s also a quick read. show less

Cogin was captured as a boy by Apaches and raised as one until he was shot and captured by the U.S. Army when he was sixteen. Reunited with his family, he never overcame his stoic Apache demeanor. When a drifter who is welcomed to his family ranch for an a brief rest assaults and kills his teenage sister, he sets out to capture and kill the villain.

After a visit to a town in the dessert whose inhabitants believe him to be a bounty hunter on the trail of big money, he is followed by five of show more those shady citizens. In short order he is facing difficulties from the murderer he is chasing, an Apache raiding party led by an old advisory from his Apache days and a Mexican bandit not to mention the five citizens he doesn't like who are after the bounty money.

This one fast moving, exciting western read. show less