Mon 10 Apr 2017
Archived Western Review: WADE EVERETT – Broken Gun.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western Fiction[7] Comments
WADE EVERETT – Broken Gun. Ballantine, paperback original; 1st printing, May 1970. Center Point Pub., hardcover, May 2017.
This is the story of two cowpokes, friends for years, one older and easy-going, the other younger, much wiser and anxious to make his mark in the world. Their trails split, however, after they stumble across a sheep ranch now owned and operated by a woman on her own, and deadly consequences follow.
Most westerns, I’ve discovered, have just about the same pedestrian prose, some a bit flashier, some more wooden in nature, though never quite dull. Everett’s writing, on the other hand, sings, at least in comparison. It’s only after half the book had passed that I discovered I’d been caught by surprise with the tune he’d was playing.
The perception, at least, of who one of the characters really is, deep inside, gets a sudden twist out of shape around Chapter 8, and after that the story is a little meaner and a little nastier than it was before. It’s tough to describe in just a few lines, but it’s something like getting smacked on the side of the head when you’re looking the other way, then being forced to like it.
Bibliographic Note: “Wade Everett” was the joint pseudonym of western writers Will Cook and Giles A. Lutz. (A statement that’s not quite correct. See Comment #1.)
April 10th, 2017 at 7:17 pm
Steve: Actually, Wade Everett was Will Cook’s pseudonym. The last couple of WE titles were written by Giles Lutz after Cook’s untimely death (at age 45 of a heart attack) to fulfill a multi-book Ballantine contract with Cook.
April 10th, 2017 at 7:52 pm
Thanks for the correction, Bill. Will Cook died in 1964, and this book came out from Ballantine in 1970 — so am I safe in assuming that BROKEN GUN is one that Giles Lutz wrote?
April 10th, 2017 at 8:24 pm
BROKEN GUN was the last of the Wade Everett novels, so it’s quite likely that Giles Lutz was the author. As far as I know, no western writer other than Cook and Lutz wrote as WE.
April 11th, 2017 at 4:28 am
I’ve heard good things about this book somewhere before.
April 11th, 2017 at 10:01 am
I don’t know if you remember that far back (1993), but this review first appeared in my DAPA-Em zine at the time.
There is one five-star review for it on Amazon, otherwise, well there’s always word of mouth, if you know anyone else who reads westerns.
I don’t remember the story all that well, but I rated this one an equivalent of an “A”.
April 11th, 2017 at 9:05 pm
Both Cook and Lutz were old hands doing this sort of thing, with lean careful prose that reminded me of Luke Short.
April 11th, 2017 at 9:16 pm
This may be the only book I’ve read by Giles Lutz, and I didn’t even realize it. I have several of his other books boxed away. I’ll have to dig them out.