Paul previously reviewed one of the
four Clayburn novels, The Man in Black, for our Six-Gun Justice blog,
and ever since, I’ve wanted to pick up one of the entries in the four book
series by Marvin Albert—writing under his Al Conroy pseudonym. I got the chance with one of
our recent round robin boxes produced by members of our Men’s Adventure Paperbacks
group on Facebook.
Last Train to Bannock is from
1963, second in the series after Clayburn (1961). Followed by Three Rode North
(1964) and The Man in Black (1965). The Clayburn novels, however, can be read in any order. A wandering gambler, Clayburn—no first name—dresses impeccably for the
casino, but otherwise wears a buckskin shirt, Levis, and a pearl-handled
revolver.
The story opens with Clayburn
walking into a stage coach station near Parrish City. Inside, a pair of hired
killers are waiting on the stage driven by Harry Farnell. The men aim to kill
Farnell, who Clayburn later learns is in the freighting business with a tough
gal named Cora Sorel. The shooters work for Cora Sorel’s rival, a wagon train
teamster called George Adler.
Everything hinges on a gold
strike in the mountains near Bannock—which was a real Montana mining town,
though the story seems to be set somewhat south of the region. Farnell and Cora
Sorel plan to freight a ton of supplies into the mine camp where they’ll recoup
three times their value. Adler has the same idea.
When Farnell is killed at the
station, Clayburn naturally steps in and the fierce competition is on. It’s a
wagon train race into the mountains with plenty of fighting and shooting. I got
a kick out of Albert's writing, which was reminiscent of Ben Haas—aka: John
Benteen of Fargo fame (but not Wells Fargo). It's good, tough prose, but it
never takes itself too seriously. Just as Clayburn has no first name, Cora
Sorel always goes by both names, a fun gimmick a lot of writers use—me included—which
I first noticed in Robert B. Parker's Looking for Rachel Wallace.
A few bits of trivia. The
paperback copy I have is a Dell reprint from 1979 and features a cover painting
of Clayburn climbing up onto a railroad locomotive under the Last Train to
Bannock title. Anybody reading the book however might be confused as the
story is about a wagon train, not a steam-powered railroad train. A
glaring mistake.
Author Marvin Albert wrote a
slew of books, most in the western and crime genres, under various pen names.
He originally used the name Al Conroy for his Clayburn novels, though they were
later reprinted by Fawcett in 1989 under his real name. One of the Clayburns
was made into a movie—as you may know—The Man in Black became from 1967,
with Dean Martin, George Peppard, and Jean Simmons.
Albert was no stranger to the
screen, having seen at least three of his previous westerns made into movies.
In this instance he also wrote the screenplay based on his novel. However, Albert’s
screenplay for what became Rough Night In Jericho, ended up being quite
different from the book it was based on, The Man In Black. This led to
the weird twist of the studio commissioning a movie tie-in novelization of Rough
Night In Jericho, written by Richard Mead—another pseudonym for Ben Haas.
Albert’s other Westerns that
made it to the screen include Apache Uprising, filmed as Dual at
Diablo in 1966, The Bounty Killer, filmed as The Ugly Ones
also in 1966, and Renegade Posse filmed as Bullet for a Badman in
1964.
His most famous work however,
was his first western, The Law and Jake Wade, filmed in 1958, starring
Robert Taylor.
Last Train to Bannock is a solid action-adventure with a tough-guy loner
whose as good with his fists and a gun as he is ferreting out a card-sharp and
sweeping the book’s heroine off her feet.
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