Sat 2 Jul 2016
A Western Review: L. L. FOREMAN – Last Stand Mesa.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western Fiction[4] Comments
L. L. FOREMAN – Last Stand Mesa. Ace Double 47200, paperback original, 1969, bound with Mad Morgan’s Horde, by Philip Ketchum. Reprinted as a solo volume: Ace 47201, no date stated (cover shown).
At a spare 126 pages, this western novel still has enough fast-paced action and staying power to keep a reader going through an entire cross-country airplane flight, even interrupted every so often by short naps and offers of pretzels and soft drinks, with time left over for an even meatier private eye novel from the 50s as well. Or so it proved for me.
Even though the book opens with Mike McLean on the run from a sheriff’s posse on the way to Mexico, he’s portrayed sympathetically enough that we instinctively know he’s not a ruthless outlaw of any shape or form, just a guy who’s down on his luck and who made a mistake. And so he proves to be.
After McLean saves an elderly gent, a tinhorn gambler named Timothy Sean Mario O’Burrifergus — or Ould Burro for short — from imminent death from a gang of disgruntled former acquaintances, the two down-on-their-luck fugitives join forces and take a detour from their foray into Mexico. They settle down instead in what turns out to be the middle side of an incipient range war, caught between two ranchers, one also the leader of a gang of outlaws, but each of whom wants to control the entire valley.
There is a girl, of course, a roundup and a stampede, a fancy dance night interrupted before it’s over by hatred and gunfire, a fake wedding and a deadly ambush with a story-shaking outcome — all I say, in a mere 126 pages. A book with almost everything but a major twist or two in the plot, only minor ones. Just enough staying power to keep a reader reading, but alas, none whatsoever afterward.
July 2nd, 2016 at 9:28 pm
Foreman learned his lessons in the Western well. He was always readable, but with mild to no staying power. His novels were the equivalent of a good horse opera on the small screen, but never — or at least seldom — rose to the level of a big screen Western.
Still, his professionalism is worth noting. From the length of this one I would imagine it has pulp origins. 126 pages is about 50,000 words on the nose, the length for a fairly long pulp novel.
July 2nd, 2016 at 9:50 pm
Your instincts are quite correct, David. There was indeed an earlier version of the novel, billed as a novella in Zane Grey’s Western Magazine, February 1951. The magazine was digest-sized, but it was still a pulp magazine.
July 2nd, 2016 at 9:54 pm
Out of curiosity, I went looking to see what might be the first western tale that Foreman ever had published. This may be it: “Noose Fodder,” Western Aces, December 1934, featuring a long forgotten series character called Preacher Devlin.
July 2nd, 2016 at 10:00 pm
I consider Foreman one of the better western pulp authors. His best work appeared in WESTERN STORY during the 1940’s. The Preacher Devlin series eventually switched from WESTERN ACES to WESTERN STORY and was very popular with readers right up to the time the magazine was killed by the infamous Allan Grammer, president of Street & Smith, in 1949.