Sat 30 Jul 2011
Archived Western Review: WILL COOK – Killer Behind a Badge.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western Fiction[6] Comments
WILL COOK – Killer Behind a Badge. Avon T-867; paperback original, 1960. John Curley, large print hardcover, 1994.
A western novel, and in only 128 pages, it packs a nifty punch. Will Cook, who also wrote as Wade Everett, James Keene, and Frank Peace, had the knack of summing up a person’s life history in just a few descriptive sentences.
Take, for example, the first paragraph of the book:
The power in town belongs to Jefford Lane. From page 7:
The local law is in the hands of Manning Cordell. From page 8:
I could go on, but these are three of the main characters, all important, if not essential, to the plot. Cordell is tough on lawbreakers, and Shannon is the only one who knows exactly how tough the Marshall is: judge, jury, and executioner, all wrapped up in one tidy package. As he explains to the faro dealer Elfrieda on page 33:
Here’s where the title of the book comes in. From this point on, it’s a game of wits to determine who will prevail, Shannon or Cordell, and all bets are off in terms of which way this terse and concise hardboiled little novel will go.
It gets a little choppy here and there — two cattle rustlers siding with Shannon are deposited in jail and never heard from again — but there’s a lot of tough action to go with some insightful perspective into the minds of the players.
And the ending is doubly satisfying, quite ironic in terms of a man who, having succeeded once, follows it up by making what’s clearly a terribly wrong choice. Very nicely done, and it’s quite unexpected. If you’re a western fan, be on the lookout for this one.
October 2003 (with revisions).
[UPDATE] 07-30-11. I have a feeling that the ending of this review was deliberately vague, so as not to any reveal significant plot points that I shouldn’t. Of course here it is, over eight years later, and I don’t remember the ending at all.
No matter. I trust my judgment. I recommended the novel then, and I still do now.
July 30th, 2011 at 6:28 pm
If one likes Westerns, Elmore Leonard wrote some, I think most of them early in his career.
Worth reading is putting it mildly.
The Doc
July 30th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Most people probably don’t think of Leonard as a western writer, but he certainly was. He came along during the final years of the pulp magazine era and was one of the better ones.
Better than Louis L’Amour, without a doubt, who is the first name people think of when you talk about western authors. In my opinion, of course!
August 1st, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Funny you should mention Elmore Leonard. I just got back from Pulpfest where I purchased four pulps with his stories in them. One actually has a L’Amour story as well. I’ll have to compare the two in that issue. I’ve never gone wrong with ANYthing Leonard has written yet!
August 1st, 2011 at 7:22 pm
I like L’Amour’s pulp stories a lot more than I do his novels, which are OK but often show signs of being written too fast. (I hope that’s an accurate assessment. I admit to not having read a L’Amour novel in quite a while.)
But I have no idea whose short stories are better, Leonard’s or L’Amour’s. Report back, Paul, if you think of it. I’ll try to remind you, too.
August 3rd, 2011 at 5:39 am
Well, Paul,
you WON’T start regretting with Leonard ‘s Westerns.
They are early work, but show the man. They do NOT typefy among white settlers and Indians, in NO direction. They tell a story, as Leonard always did well, and make you look for more.
The Doc
September 23rd, 2017 at 5:08 am
Leonard’s novel “Hombre” was elected as one of the best 25 western ever written, and was the basis for the Martin Ritt’s movie by the same title, starring Paul Newman, Richard Boone and Diane Cilento.