Sat 29 Aug 2009
Archived Western Review: T. T. FLYNN – Ride to Glory.
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Reviews , Western Fiction[10] Comments
T. T. FLYNN – Ride to Glory: A Western Quartet. Five Star, hardcover; 1st edition; 2000. Reprint paperback: Leisure, March 2004.
I’ll list the titles of the four novelettes and short novels it contains, and that’s all you’ll need to have a perfect picture of what this book’s all about: “Ghost Guns for Gold”, “Half Interest in Hell”, “The Gun Wolf” and “Ride to Glory.”
Action, that is, pure pistol-packing action. First appearing in the pages of old pulp fiction magazines such as Star Western (1935), Dime Western (1945 & 1949), and Western Story Magazine (1938), this marks the debut of these tales in hardcover.
And whenever there’s room to breathe between the rounds of gunfire, there’s always a chance that romance will work its way into the story, one way or another. According to the creed of the day, or so it’s implied — if not outright stated — it’s the love of good women that gives men the courage to risk their necks against the crooked ranchers, conniving Mexican despots, and other assorted outlaws found inhabiting these pages, and by extension, the entire American west.
If these stories succeed, it’s by sheer story-telling power, not by the grace or elegance of the writing. While T. T. Flynn was the contemporary of such western writers such as Max Brand and Zane Grey, it’s plain to see that he simply wasn’t in their league, at least not in terms of word-slinging ability.
But if you can sit back, turn off your critical eye, and allow these yarns of yesteryear to simply take over, what you’ll be in for is four installments of the ride of your life — and I ask you: What could be better than that?
[UPDATE] 08-29-09. I’ve recently had to drop out of a western fiction apa called Owlhoots — a pure lack of time — but in the ten or so issues I did for it, there are some articles and reviews I did that I’ll gradually be reprinting here on the Mystery*File blog.
I regret to say that at the moment, I don’t have access to the book itself, and I seem to have made no record of it at the time. Right now, except for one story, I can’t tell you which one came from which magazine. When I come across the rest of the information, I’ll add it later:
Half-Interest in Hell, Dime Western Magazine, July 1945.
[UPDATE #2] Later the same day. Walker Martin has come to my rescue. See comment #1.
August 29th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
I’ve always been interested in T.T.Flynn because I like his long running series in Dime Detective about Mr. Maddox (The Bland Buddha of the Bangtail Circuit). Over 30 long novelette detective mysteries in the late 1930’s through the 1940’s.
However he wrote quite a few westerns and I have the book reviewed above. The stories appeared as follows:
“Ghost Guns for Gold” appeared in Western Story Magazine, Aug 27, 1938.
“Half Interest in Hell” appeared in Dime Western, July, 1945.
“The Gun Wolf” appeared in Dime Western, Dec, 1949.
“Ride to Glory” appeared in Star Western, July, 1935.
August 29th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Thanks, Walker. I’m glad your copy of the book was handier to find than mine.
Back when I was reading Dime Detective fairly steadily, I hated stories with horses in them, don’t ask why, and so I’m sure I probably skipped most of Flynn’s Mr. Maddox stories.
I wasn’t even reading Dick Francis back then, so I mean T. T. Flynn no disrespect.
And as soon as I can, to show that I mean it, I’ll pull out a stack of Dime Detective’s and read a Mr. Maddox story!
— Steve
August 29th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Flynn was also a regular in Private Detective. Not the most graceful of writers, but you usually got your dime’s worth in either genre.
August 30th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Some of T.T. Flynn’s pulp mysteries about Mike Harris and Trixie Meehan are very enjoyable. Wish a lot more of Flynn’s detective fiction were available.
Some brief notes:
http://mikegrost.com/pulpadv.htm#Flynn
August 30th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Flynn was probably underrated in the pulps where sheer competence was considered the norm. Not art or literature perhaps, but the average pulp was well enough written, and often better than need be. Flynn was almost always readable, and these days that would be an accomplishment.
August 31st, 2009 at 1:38 pm
I’ve read some of his detective pulp work, and it’s very readable, indeed.
August 31st, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Had to dig up my notes to provide some information. The stories I’ve read were all in Finnish translation and the titles of the stories won’t translate back easily, but let me see:
– there’s an almost shudder-like story about a circus and its elephant that parades into the arena with a decapitated man, can’t find a matching title to “Under the Circus Tent”, has to be pre-1936
– a railroad story about an attempt to blow up a train that has circus animals in it, published in Finnish in 1950
– Bill Jennings is one of Flynn’s hardboiled characters and a reporter, in a story with a title “Nightingale Sings Death” or something to that effect: it’s about a dead blackmailer
– another hero is Tom Delaney, in a story about a double impersonating as Delaney, can’t find a matching title
– a burglar, expert in safes, is haunted by his past in a story called “The Shadows from the Past”, my notes say excellent and very noirish; can’t find a matching title
– “Burning Ice” or something to that effect
is the title for a story about a weird testament: 25 000 dollars for someone who solves the death of the maker of the testament
– then there’s a story about a lieutenant who’s getting ready for retirement and shoots down accidentally a young junkie; the lieutenant is called Harrigan
– another reporter, Bill Somers, is in the story about a jewel robbery
– then there’s a story about a gambler who gets an attack of bad conscience
Most of these stories were probably published in Dime Detective or Detective Tales, and I don’t have any index for those and they are not well documented in FMI, so if someone else finds those stories in there, I’d be really happy to hear!
August 31st, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Juri, some of these sound familiar but the stories are buried among my pulp collection and I would go crazy trying to identify them. I’m sure they were all one shot stories and not part of any extensive series like the Mr Maddox stories in Dime Detective. However, I did stumble across a few:
Your title “Under the Circus Tent” about the circus may be “Three Ring Murder” starring a character called Dan McGrath. Appeared in Dime Detective, May 1932.
The Bill Jennings story appeared in Dime Detective, April 1938 and is called “The Nightingale Sings Death”.
“Burning Ice” appeared in Dime Detective, October 1937.
But Flynn’s major detective effort was the long running Mr Maddox series in Dime Detective. Between 1938 and running into 1950 he appeared at least 35 times, all of them long novelets, some close to 20,000 words. Each story was a mystery/detective tale starring Joe Maddox, a racetrack bookie who along with his sidekick, Oscar, was always involved in complex murder cases. His nemesis was a cop named Cassidy.
Now frankly, when I first started reading these stories in 1969 and 1970, I did not particularly like them at all. They were ok but definitely not favorites of mine. However, as I continued collecting Dime Detective and completing my set(274 issues), I realized that this was the longest running series by far and must of been very popular with the readers. So I kept giving him a chance and reading others in the series and you can guess what happened. I began to love the character and the stories.
Give Mr Maddox a try and you too might become a fan of “The Bland Buddha Of the Bangtail Circuit”.
September 1st, 2009 at 2:26 am
Walker, thanks for those tips! I didn’t come across any Joe Maddox stories when I was going through Finnish pulps, which seems like a shame.
Dan McGrath sounds vaguely familiar, but then again, almost all the hardboiled pulp names sound vaguely familiar! I’ll take a look at the translated story. Thanks again!
September 23rd, 2017 at 5:34 am
Notable in his work is The Man from Laramie, basis for the 1955 movie starring James Stewart and Arthur Kennedy, directed by Anthony Mann.