WESTERN COVER CAVALCADE—THE PROFESSIONALS #1

WESTERN COVER CAVALCADE

THE PROFESSIONALS

My favorite Frank O'Rourke novel, The Professionals, started life as a paperback original under the title A Mule For The Marquesa. The title was changed to take advantage of the hit movie, and one of my favorite Westerns, The Professionals, which was, of course, based on A Mule For The Marquesa. The Professionals was clearly a better title and stuck around for a number of reprint editions. It has taken a while, but I believe I've collected all of the paperback versions...

 

 

SIX-GUN JUSTICE CONVERSATIONS—WAYNE D. DUNDEE

SIX-GUN JUSTICE CONVERSATIONS

WAYNE D. DUNDEE

In this Six-Gun Justice Conversation segment, podcast co-host Paul Bishop ties up at the hitchin' post for a chin wag with longtime friend and wordslinger Wayne D. Dundee, bestselling author of the Lone McGantry Westerns and many other rip snortin' tales... 

Available now on all major podcast streaming platforms or by clicking the player below...

SIX-GUN JUSTICE PODCAST EPISODE 26—WAYNE VS. MURPHY

SIX-GUN JUSTICE PODCAST 

EPISODE 26

JOHN WAYNE VS. AUDIE MURPHY

 

In this full-length episode of the Six-Gun Justice Podcast, saddle up with Paul and Rich as they head down the trail while talking about their favorite John Wayne and Audie Murphy Westerns from Red River to Seven Ways From Sundown. Along the way, they will also be reviewing both vintage westerns and some new publications every Western fan is going to want to get their lasso around... 

 

Available now on all major podcast streaming platforms or by clicking on the player below...

WESTERN NOVELS—RENEGADE BRAND

WESTERN NOVELS

RENEGADE BRAND RICHARD BRISTER

1955 FAWCETT GOLD MEDAL

REVIEWER: RICHARD PROSCH

From three years prior to the previously reviewed The Wolf Streak, this one’s got all that The Wolf Streak’s got and a little bit more. Cast from the same basic soap opera template, there’s more action and more lead-perforated bad guys. 

 

I wonder if the editors of the Fawcett Gold Medal originals encouraged more violence than the Avon editors? Either way, it’s a better book. 

 

In the one, Neil Ashton isn’t coming back home from hunting wolves. He’s coming back from a few years on the owl hoot trail. A man who hung around with some bad hombres—but never actually did anything wrong—he sees the road he’s headed down and comes home to take over the Stirrup ranch when his stepmom dies. 

 

But of course, the Stirrup is broke and since it’s the only land around with a lake, it’s coveted by bad neighbor and childhood rival Frank Buckmaster. Frank’s got a hard buddy named Johnny Wenima and a good deal of influence over folks around the nearby town of Piperock. 

 

It’s hard for Neil to make a go of things with Frank in his way, and another neighbor named Peyt English is sparking Neil’s old gal-pal Ruth. Brister runs through all the tropes from fistfights, gun battles, and Frank trying to frame Neil in the eye of the kindly old sheriff—Exactly as he’d do later in The Wolf Streak—the author introduces a mean gunman who first works for the hero, but then switches sides. But this time the showdown is more-gut wrenching, with a more satisfying conclusion. 

 

All in all, a fine read.

WESTERN NOVELS—THE WOLF STREAK

WESTERN NOVELS

THE WOLF STREAK

RICHARD BRISTER

1958 AVON

REVIEWER: RICHARD PROSCH

When I was in college, I had a friend who went bad like summer bananas. Nobody could stop him. A friendly, well-manner kid at first, he became an irritable, self-absorbed young adult. As more responsibility was expected of him, his pampered home life became more evident, and he started drinking. Really let himself go.

I stood by him for a long time. After most of our friends had relegated him to the trash heap, I tried to hang on to our friendship. It wasn’t altogether altruistic. In college, where the weekend option was drinking on the south dirt road, drinking on the north dirt road, or driving the streets drinking, my own ulterior motive was better the drunk you know than the one you don’t. But ultimately I could keep up with him.

 

That’s what happens with Lane Merrit and his half-brother Phil Harlan in Richard Brister’s 1958 Avon original, The Wolf Streak.

 

A half-breed wolf hunter, Lane’s a good guy who comes back to the family ranch a few years after his and Phil’s dad has passed away. Disinherited during his absence, Lane just wants to visit the old Crown Ranch. He finds his brother, Phil, his intended bride, Fay, and a tough hired hand named Rube.But see, Phil’s gone bad. Worse, he’s intent on continuing his downward spiral.

 

As so often happens in these pot-boilers, Phil tricked the old man into giving him the entire spread and cutting out Lane. Naturally, Lane finds out about the betrayal.

 

Like me with my old college chum, Lane tries to get along. Phil makes it impossible. Rube plays the thug, Lane hires a thug of his own. Phil turns people against Lane, Lane finds a new friend and ally on a small ranch called the Long Seven.

 

Through it all, Lane bends over backward to hang on to the relationship, hoping things will get better and that Phil will confess—Of course it comes to gunplay in the end.

 

What struck me most about The Wolf Streak is that plays out very much like a real life drama between two people who should care for each other, but no longer, can.