Mon 16 Apr 2018
A Western Review: HARRY WHITTINGTON – Trouble Rides Tall.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western Fiction[6] Comments
HARRY WHITTINGTON – Trouble Rides Tall. Abelard-Schuman, hardcover, 1958. Crest #357, paperback, 1960. Reprinted by Stark House Press, softcover, 2016, in a 3-in-1 edition also containing Cross the Red Creek (Avon, 1964) and Desert Stake-Out (Gold Medal, 1961).
One day in the life of a trouble marshal, whose hold on his job is suddenly starting to slip through his fingers. Through no fault of his own. He’s done exactly what he was hired to do — clean up the town of Pony Wells just enough so the honest, clean living residents can go to sleep without a lot of ruckus and noise going on outside their windows, while the cowboys and drifters can have their fun, and the saloon keepers, the grifters and prostitutes can successfully ply their trades — as long as they keep it quiet and (hopefully) behind closed doors.
That’s what he was hired to do, and now he’s though of as someone to be looked down upon by one half of the town and with side glances only from the other.
The day begins with the discovery of a dead saloon girl in a shallow grave — making this a crime novel as well as a western — and ends with Bry Shafter having made a decision about himself, or perhaps having it made for him. No one but he seems to care about the dead girl. His deputy is young and very obviously wants Bry’s job, and a committee of citizens from another town is in town to offer Bry the same job he has in Pony Wells, but at twice the salary.
Bry is good with both his guns and his fists, but what make this novel work as well as it does is what goes on in his mind. Shunned by snooty townsladies and a target for young gunslingers wanting to make names for themselves, Bry finds that the fine line he has been walking along has gotten finer and finer.
A character study, then, and a damned good one. I dare say that because author Harry Whittington plays his cards close to his vest, and you (the reader) never quite know how it’s gong to turn out. Is this one of he better examples of western noir I’ve read recently? I think it is.
April 17th, 2018 at 7:35 am
Whittington’s Westerns are definitely worth reading. DESERT STAKEOUT reads like a Budd Boetticher movie, and in fact it’s dedicated to producer Harry Joe Brown.
April 17th, 2018 at 2:00 pm
That makes at least two very good westerns in the same Stark House collection. I’ve never read the middle one, but I’m willing to wager that there’s three.
April 17th, 2018 at 4:43 pm
A solid adult Western though the psychology is less the 19th Century Old West than 1958 America. Too notch Whittington, which is very good indeed.
April 17th, 2018 at 6:49 pm
You nailed it, David. I wasn’t able to put my finger on it in my review, but you’re right. There was a little much 1958 POV for the marshal’s troubles than fit the actual time frame. Even so, the sense of something feeling not quite right wore off as the book went on.
April 20th, 2018 at 7:34 am
Bill Crider was a huge Whittington enthusiast. He had the most complete Whittington collection of anyone I know of. Bill loved Whittington’s westerns.
April 20th, 2018 at 10:32 am
Yes, I remember that Bill was a big fan of Whittington’s. I felt sad to know that Bill wasn’t going to be able to read my review of this one as I was writing it.