A cattleman comes to town ahead of his herd, planning to sell to a prosperous Idaho rancher, and almost immediately draws the ire of every local resident, culminating in a shootout the first night. Our cattleman hero, with his own sometimes peculiar pride and code of honor, bulldogs along until he busts open a rustling gang, breaking its grip on the town.
Guns at Q Cross is the slender side of an Ace Western double that I picked up for a shiny quarter at a library book sale. I had never heard of author Merle Constiner, but a little googling led me to find out he was a well-regarded midwestern pulp writer (from the neighboring state of Ohio) who, late in the life, turned to westerns. This one featured some interesting writing and some stretches of slapdashery, which I suspect was from having to write at a pretty good clip for Ace. Overall a solid oater with some interesting Idaho locations.
On the other side is a longer western novel by Tom West, who some people suspect was actually Merle Constiner as well. I will flip it over and keep reading.
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2 comments:
Hi John. Finally got around to reading these reviews and really appreciate you covering westerns.
Good for you. Just curious, why don't you use the covers with your reviews like me and Doc? Anyways,
keep reading and reviewing. Plan on stopping by regularly from now on.
Thanks, Ron, I have been following your work since your "Green Hornet" days with NOW Comics. It's funny how the interwebs work. I guess I don't use photos cuz I'm lazy. Actually I think it's more the formatting gets goofy sometimes. Thanks for asking.
JOD
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