Sat 13 May 2017
Western Review: MERLE CONSTINER – Guns at Q Cross.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western Fiction[6] Comments
MERLE CONSTINER – Guns at Q Cross. Ace Double M-118, paperback original; 1st printing, 1965. Published back-to-back with The Toughest Town in the Territory, by Tom West. Reprinted as Ace Double 81861, the cover of which is the one shown.
Back in the 1940s, Merle Constiner was primarily known for the detective stories he wrote for Black Mask, Dime Detective and several other top notch pulp magazines of the day. He did write one detective novel, Hearse of a Different Color (Phoenix, 1952), but by 1957 he seems to have writing only western novels, many if not all of them for Ace in the “double” format, still very much collectible today.
The hero of Guns at Q Cross is a hard-boiled rancher from Texas named Stiles Gilmore, who has preceded a herd of his cattle to a ranch in southern Idaho, where he has a buyer waiting for him. What he doesn’t expect is that on the same day that he arrives, an owlhoot who is lying in wait for him shoots to kill.
Stiles is caught without a gun, so he’s lucky the fellow misses. But when Stiles soon sees the man again, he is ready. He pulls out his gun and kills him! The reason this comes as a surprise (note the exclamation point) is that even though the wild west was supposed to wild and woolly, this certainly seems woollier than most works of western fiction.
It seems that there is a severe amount of rustling going on in the territory, and while Stiles is worried that his herd is at risk, it is not so. It’s just that Stiles’s presence is a catalyst for stirring up things involving the dirty work the gang is really up to.
There is a bit of detective work that goes on in the rest of this very short novel (only 109 pages), as Stiles tries to figure out just what it is that he’s walked into, and who’s behind it, but unfortunately while Constiner brings his characters to life in fine fashion, the story itself is just not all that interesting.
May 13th, 2017 at 10:37 pm
Because of Merle Constiner’s excellent series in DIME DETECTIVE and BLACK MASK starring The Dean and private eye Luther McGavock, I tracked down all his western paperbacks that he wrote after the pulps died.
My stack Constiner western paperbacks number 16 novels and most of them are quite interesting. I read GUNS AT Q CROSS back in 1972 and my notes say:
“Superb western. Ron Goulart got me hooked on these later efforts by Constiner. Ron said he probably got only $1500 to $2000 for each one, maybe less. Not bizarre like his work in DIME DETECTIVE and BLACK MASK but very enjoyable just the same. Stiles Gilmore, tough rancher, is a well drawn character.”
May 13th, 2017 at 10:57 pm
All of the characters in Q CROSS are very well done, both good guys, bad guys and walk-on characters. The various landscapes in southern Idaho are well described also, from the lava desert (see the cover), to the grasslands, to the mountains. My only wish was that there was more to the story. I have been wondering if a longer book with more subplots included would have helped. On the other hand, a longer book might have felt padded, so I haven’t yet decided.
May 14th, 2017 at 12:09 am
I’ll look this one up.
May 14th, 2017 at 5:29 am
I paid two dollars for the copy I found at the Old Book Store in Morristown NJ while riding with Paul Herman down to Walker Martin’s last weekend.
They had most of one shelf filled with Ace Double westerns, all in nice condition and at the same price. Since I had most of them, I bought only the one. I’ll probably read and review the Tom West half soon.
May 14th, 2017 at 8:42 am
Haven’t read this one yet.
But two of Constiner’s Western books are recommended:
Short-Trigger Man (1964)
The Four from Gila Bend (1968)
They show the skill with characterization and setting Steve mentions.
AND they have good plots – which not all of Constiner’s Westerns do (some are thin – like Steve says about Q Cross).
I’m a big fan of Constiner’s pulp detective stories about The Dean.
I also like the way Constiner’s Western books are short – really novellas.
IMHO this is a much better length than the bloated, padded novels often published today.
January 13th, 2020 at 9:48 pm
Does anyone have any idea who painted the cover art for this book?I have the original painting.