Sam Bowie (Todhunter Ballard)

 Thunderhead Range

by

Sam Bowie

(Todhunter Ballard)

Dale Thorne returned home with one purpose: vengeance.

His target was King Parson, an ornery, brutal tyrant of a man—the same man who’d driven Dale off Thunderhead Ranch and driven Dale’s mother into an early grave. Waiting for him, too, were the remnants of a broken family: two half brothers. Les—already dead, killed the night before Dale’s return—and Ford, simmering with resentment toward both his father and his brother.

And then there was Lucy Colton, who despised everything and everyone connected to Thunderhead Ranch.

But Dale hadn’t come back empty‑handed. He carried one crucial piece of knowledge: His father had rewritten his will the night before he died, leaving everything not to Dale’s mother nor King Parson, but to Dale himself. Now Dale was home to uncover that will—and reclaim what should have been his all along.

The story was solid—maybe not great, but certainly engaging—with action that steadily escalated toward a brutal, satisfying finale. The writing held up well, and the plot kept me entertained throughout.

The characters were equally strong, especially Lucy, a fiery, strong‑willed woman who added real spark to the narrative. There was also a welcome thread of mystery as Thorne tried to uncover who murdered his brother.

And for those who enjoy digging into author backgrounds, Sam Bowie is yet another pen name used by the remarkably prolific Willis Todhunter Ballard.

4/5

Lee E. Wells

 Vulture's Gold

by 

Lee E. Wells

Hank Allen owned The Golden Vulture mine, The Golden Vulture saloon, and most of the rest of Paso Grande lock, stock and lawman. New people may come into his town from time to time but not for long, unless he says it s all right.

Kate Brent hires Jerry Crane to escort her to Paso Grande, determined to uncover the truth about her brother’s death. Everyone insists Apaches were responsible — until a letter arrives claiming his own partner, Hank Allen, was behind it.

No sooner do they reach town than Crane is jumped by Allen’s hired muscle, and things only escalate from there. Allen isn’t the type to let trouble simmer, and Crane soon realizes the only way to deal with a deadly crew like this is to cut the head off the snake.

Unfortunately, the best thing about this book is the cover. I struggled to stay engaged and found myself skipping sections. The writing is serviceable and the action is plentiful, but something essential just isn’t there.

3/5

William Heuman

 Gunhand from Texas

by

William Heuman

Standing out in front of the Elkhorn National Bank, unshaven, his black hair beginning to curl at his neck, his clothing about as badly worn as that of any of the trail riders who'd come up with him from Texas, Emmett Kane definitely did not look like a man who had a bank draft for 12 thousand dollars in his shirt pocket. It was no surprise that Madge Wilson offered him a job as a ranch hand. What was a surprise was when a cowboy warned him not to take the job.

After finishing a long cattle drive and ignoring a clear warning to stay out of Madge Wilson’s troubles Emmett Kane does exactly what he was told not to. His grit and capability don’t go unnoticed, and before long Madge appoints him as her new foreman, a decision none of her hands see fit to challenge.

The action comes hard and fast as two rival outfits start pushing their stock across Squaw Run, aiming to take over Pine Tree’s winter range in Vermilion Valley—the only decent grazing left once the snow sets in. But nothing is quite what it seems, and Kane digs in, tough as rawhide, to defend the brand he’s sworn to ride for.

This is my second Heuman novel, and it’s every bit as strong—if not stronger—than my first. Kane is a hard-bitten lead who shoulders the job he’s given, while the supporting cast each brings their own weight to the story. The winter setting is painted in broad, vivid strokes; you can almost feel the cold rolling off the page.

Read in one sitting in front of a warm fire, Gunman from Texas is a gritty, well‑crafted, action‑packed tale that cements Heuman firmly on my must‑read list of Western authors.

5/5  

Barry Cord

 Boss of the Barbed Wire

by

Barry Cord

Ben Sladeen left New Orleans to move to a ranch at Two Mile called the Barbed Wire. An old enemy follows him there and buys an adjacent ranch. His painful past in New Orleans returns to haunt him in the guise of the King brothers and Curly Temper. 

Ben Sladeen tricks his boss, John Cross, into signing over the Barbed Wire ranch partly to honor a promise to a dead woman, partly to keep it out of the hands of Curly Temper, his sworn enemy. He tells himself he’s doing the right thing, but as events unfold he starts to wonder whether his motives are as noble as he claims.

At the same time, rustlers are bleeding the Barbed Wire dry.

Adding to the trouble, Cross’s daughter Laura wants the ranch sold  so she can take her father away on the next stagecoach. Sladeen, however, is certain of one thing: whatever his reasons—good or bad—he’ll fight like hell to keep Curly Temper from getting his hands on the Barbed Wire.

I really enjoyed Cord’s (Peter Germano’s) writing. It’s sharp, well‑paced, and reads like an old‑school western film—the kind I prefer over most modern ones. Maybe that makes me old‑fashioned.

I read this one in large print. Maybe that’s a sign of getting older… or maybe it’s just the only way to get many of the classic westerns through the library these days.

5/5 

J.T Edson

 A Town Called Yellowdog

by

J.T. Edson

The citizens of Moondog, Texas, stood staring at the small, blond, insignificant cowhand—only he seemed to be the biggest man present, towering over his two companions, and neither of them lacked size. Cold fury worked on Dusty Fog’s face as he pointed to the signboard announcing the name of the town.

“My brother came here because you begged for help,” he told them. “Danny put his life on the line

and you hadn’t the guts to back him. So he died. The name of this town’s all wrong and I aim to see

it put right. You!” His finger stabbed at the Blue Bull Saloon’s bartender. “Take your paint brush and cover over ‘Moondog’ on that sign. Put ‘Yellowdog’ in its place. Yellowdog, hombre. That’s what your town is—it and everybody in it.”

Slowly, his head hanging in shame, the bartender obeyed; for he and every man in the crowd knew that Dusty spoke the bitter truth.

Danny Fog rides into Moondog hunting for two missing Texas Rangers. They arrived ahead of him…and vanished. Now he’s in danger of becoming the third.

His cover blows almost the moment he hits town, and from that point on he’s playing against a stacked deck—Stella Howkins and her crew of hired guns run Moondog with fear, and the townsfolk are too terrified to speak. Just when Danny finally uncovers the truth, he’s murdered.

That’s when his brother, the Rio Hondo gun wizard Dusty Fog, rides in, backed by the deadly Ysabel Kid and the giant Mark Counter. Together, they aim to uncover what really happened…and settle the score in blood.

I’ve always found J.T. Edson’s work a bit uneven, but this one hits the mark. The action is constant, the mystery is tight, and the violence feels a notch higher than in many of his other books. The writing is sharp too—none of the rambling over‑descriptions that bog down some of his later novels. It left me hopeful that there are still plenty of great Edson stories waiting to be read.

5/5.

Rory Black

 The Shadow of Iron Eyes

Iron Eyes #14

by

Rory Black

(Michael D. George)

Blinded after an accident, bounty hunter Iron Eyes roamed aimlessly until he heard the hungry crackle of flames devouring a ranch house in the distance. As he rode closer, he smelled the cold, metallic stench of spilled blood, and worse, the stink of burning bodies. Dismounting, he tried to learn more about what had happened to these people … but that was when he stopped a bullet, too.

Wounded, he fell, then lay helpless as his assailant came closer, intending to finish the job.

What happened next led the bounty hunter south to a place where only the Devil would feel at home. A place where the law had never ventured, a place where Iron Eyes would have to kill anyone who stood in his way.

Iron Eyes is nearly blind—temporarily, but badly enough that he moves through the world in a fog. In that dazed state he stumbles upon a burning ranch house, the bodies inside already beyond saving. Before he can make sense of the scene, a hidden gunman shoots him down.

When he finally wakes, he discovers his attacker is a girl named Sally—young, sharp, and far more dangerous than she first appears.

Thrown together by circumstance, these unlikely partners set out after the killers, riding hard toward the Mexican border, where their pursuit ends in blood and violence.

As a story, it isn’t the strongest entry in the series, but it isn’t the weakest either. This is the first time readers meet Squirrel Sally, who becomes a recurring presence in later Iron Eyes novels. Iron Eyes himself remains exactly as expected—unyielding, impossible to kill, and stubborn enough to keep going even half‑blind.

The odd piece is Mason Burr, a cold‑blooded killer whose storyline barely intersects with the main plot. He drifts alongside the narrative only to cross paths with the true villains near the end, without contributing to the final showdown. His inclusion seems mainly to set up how Squirrel Sally eventually acquires the stagecoach she uses in future books.

Still, the writing is solid, even if this installment doesn’t quite stand with the best of the series.

3/5 

Ralph Hayes

 Four Ugly Guns

Buffalo hunter #2

by

Ralph Hayes

The four men were as tough as their names: Duke Pritchard, the boss. McComb. Diablo, the Mexican. And the Superstition Kid, considered to be the fastest gun in ten counties. They left O'Brien's friends bullet-stuffed and dead. 

The buffalo hunter didn't know why. All he knew was that he was going to track down the Pritchard bunch and pay them back, if he had to trail them clear to Texas.

When O’Brien discovers his friends murdered by the Pritchard gang, it triggers a brutal chain of events. The lone buffalo hunter refuses to stop until every last one of them is in the ground. Shot, beaten, and pushed to the edge, he keeps going, driven by the need for justice. I’m sure I’ve read one or two of these books before, though I can’t quite remember. This one, though, I really enjoyed — fast‑paced, tough, and sharply written. My copy is the Centurion Books edition, listed as published in 1970.

5/5