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