1000 Dollar Target

By

Marshall Grover

(Len Meares)

(Big Jim #11)

At showdown time … the big man needed a miracle! Was this to be the last ride of Big Jim Rand? The killers awaited him dead ahead. Another of them rode directly behind him, covering his back. And, inside the disused shack, a desperate woman risked her life to give Jim a fighting chance of survival. Big Jim had become the target for professional assassins because his quarry, the elusive and badly scared Jenner, had posted a bounty on him. As well as the professionals, a trio of inept amateurs invited themselves to the ruckus, injecting humor into an otherwise grim situation

The copy I read of "Big Jim" was published around 1968 (though don't quote me on that). Jim Rand, also known as Nevada Jim in the series published under the name Marshall McCoy in the US, once again rides into a heap of trouble, accompanied by his cowardly yet light-fingered Mexican companion, Benito Espina.

This time, the story follows him as he closes in on Jenner, the man who killed Big Jim's brother and the reason he's riding the vengeance trail.

However, Jenner gets warned, and a $1,000 bounty is placed on Big Jim's head. Five men decide to cash in, but five men may meet their end instead. This could very well be Jim Rand's final ride.

As always with Meares' storytelling, there's a touch of humor mixed with plenty of action. The book is well-written, and the series was quite popular in its heyday. While paperback copies are hard to come by now, Piccadilly Publishing has released some of the stories as ebooks, including this one, ensuring they are not lost to time.

Buy it here!

 Callahan Rides Alone

by

Lee Floren

Published 1977

(Centurion Books)

Ex-Texas Ranger Al Callahan came to Montana to buy into a ranch, but it wasn't that simple. Two men tried to kill and rob him and then his would-be partner turned out to be a woman. Her main rival was another hellcat and that made the situation even worse. What with rustling and murder going on, not to mention a mighty peculiar character who walked around with a pack of wolves as bodyguards, Callahan got to thinking that maybe he should have stayed in Texas. But he had come this far so he might as well go the rest of the way

At first, I found myself a bit lost in this story, but as it progressed, everything fell into place, making for a solid tale. Not the best, but definitely enjoyable. Callahan was lured north under false pretenses to invest in a ranch run by Max Heywood, mistakenly thinking Max was a man, not a woman. From there, chaos ensues. Two men attempt to kill him, a peculiar old man with wolves shows up, he discovers Max has a brother, and learns that Max and Ann Scott, a young woman from the neighboring ranch, absolutely despise each other. Adding to the turmoil, cattle rustlers are targeting the ranch, leaving Callahan in over his head. I think I might have read this book years ago, but I couldn’t quite recall it. All in all, it was a solid entry in the western genre by an author whose work was widely published in magazines, paperbacks, and serials both in the U.S. and internationally.