Double Eagle : Latigo No. 4

 

By Dean Owen

Latigo started out as a comic strip series written and drawn by Stan Lynde. The novels are based on the comic strip series and there are four books in the series, all written by Dean Owen. Double Eagle is the last book in the Latigo series.

Coming into the series with the fourth book, there is a lot of backstory that the author has to update the reader on. Cole Latigo Cantrell has quite a history, including fighting in the American Civil War and, after the war, facing down the many bad guys who are thriving in the lawless lands of the western frontier. His main goal in life is bringing justice to the tycoon, Claudius Max, who he believes ordered the murder of Cantrell's parents back when Cantrell was still fighting for the Union. 

All through books one to three, Cantrell has failed to bring Max to justice, while Max continues to expand his railroad empire. Spoiler: he fails in this story too. In fact, he saves Max from certain death at the end of the novel. But this does nothing to resolve the conflict between the two men.

Cantrell is constantly on the move, fighting bad guys and bedding attractive young women. All the bad guys end up defeated and all the women end up disappointed when Cantrell refuses to follow up the bedding with a proposal, as in this edited conversation with an old girl friend, Aspen Groves:

Aspen: "Why not come away with me, Cole? ... You know I've been in love with you from the first." 

Cantrell: "You collect men like a stable collects flies."

Aspen: "You know it isn't love ... not like it is with you.  ... by now we could have a little house out there [Frisco] and maybe a kid and another one on the way." 

Cantrell: "I like you, Aspen. But there's a lot of women I like." 

As Cantrell works his way across the landscape, leaving behind a trial of dead men's bodies and broken-hearted females, Claudius Max is making a terrible mistake by  placing his confidence in a new employee who is not the man Max believes him to be. And only his old enemy, Cole Latigo Cantrell, can save Max from the new guy and his gang of killers. 

This was an OK read, given what it is, pulp fiction of the western variety. The sex scenes are understated, with no genitals described in intimate detail.  The constant confrontations become quite tedious, but not, I suppose, for the readers whose main interest in the story is in that sort of thing. 

Of course, we are supposed to admire Cantrell and despise his enemies. I had no trouble hating the trouble makers. But I could no longer like Cantrell after reading the above conversation between him and Aspen Groves. In it he comes off as petty and callous. In other words, she is good enough to screw but not good enough to marry. Sorry, but that makes Cantrell an jerk.

For what it is, and me not being a fan of the genre, it still is still a pretty good read. A bit thin on plot, not surprisingly, since the main point of the book is the fighting and screwing. (Lots more fighting than screwing, though.)

Dutch Uncle

 

By Marilyn Durham

A Western

Jake Hollander is a gambler with a past in law enforcement. He was settled in San Francisco but is now headed by stagecoach to El Paso, Texas. At one of the stops along the way, in various improble ways, he ends up in charge of two orphan Hispanic kids. Their mom was taking them to a boom town in New Mexico but she died on the journey. Jake is told to take the kids to the New Mexican town and deliver them to the address on an envelope found in the woman's luggage. 

When the three arrive, the address turns out to be a whore house and then the stagecoach leaves without Jake and another stage to El Paso isn't due for a month. Jake gets a temporary job as town sheriff, talked into it by an acquaintance from his days as a lawman and noted gun in Kansas. 

As Jake spends time in the tiny town, he renews his friendship with the Kansas acquaintance and his sister who are publishing the local newspaper. He also starts to build a relationship with the two kids, one of whom, the boy, Paco, has become very fond of Jake. In the process, Jake becomes embroiled in his old friends' problems and in trying to locate any family for the two orphans and in the various troubles plaguing the town. On top of all that, Jake's assaulted and robbed of his money belt containing his life savings. Things go from bad to worse when the orphans' father shows up and the only thing he cares about is the stolen money he left in the dead woman's possession.

I did enjoy this story very much. I did not like that the author kills off one of the orphans. I also thought that the strategies the author uses to tie Jake to the town and the two kids were rather contrived. And I found Jake's love interests in the story rather disappointing. But overall it was a good story, well worth reading.

The White Chip

By Nelson C. Nye

Banker Snude and a young woman, Serafina, believe the map she owns will lead them to a lost gold mine in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona.  The banker is partially funding the expedition and several other men are also funding it and coming along. Chuck was one of the men and he had the advantage of being familiar with the area.
One the way there they encounter bad guys and one man gets stabbed in the night by persons unknown. They find the mine and it is stacked to the ceiling with bags of ore, more ore than their little expedition can handle. They need to find help and they get the bright idea to hire a gang of smugglers, which turns out about as well as one would expect, dealing with criminals.  They get ambushed, the smugglers make off with the ore, but they manage to get it back only to discover when they get to Snude's bank that the smugglers switched the ore with rocks. In the process, more members of the expedition die.
Chuck, who has grown attached to Serafina, talks her into going back to look for the ore. He knows the smugglers must have stashed it until they could get together enough mules to pack it out. Taking the banker's mules, he and Serafina head back out and sure enough, they find the stolen ore. But nothing turns out the way Chuck had hoped, plus one of the peaks of the Superstitions has decided to be a volcano.

I read this story because my father was one of those hopefuls who went looking for gold in the Superstitions. Like everyone else, he found nothing. So the idea of gold hunters in the Superstitions has some nostalgia for me. Too bad the story turned out to be really stupid and boring. Total waste of time.

Murphy's Stand

By Gary Paulsen and Brian Burks

After his wife died, Murphy was adrift, lost in memories of what was and what could have been. Fast with a gun, now he lived his life on the edge, not really caring if he lived or died. But an unexpected encounter with a gang of killers on the run got Murphy into a situation that opened up new and unanticipated possibilities giving Murphy an inkling of a new life and a chance at happiness. But first he will have to face down an evil rancher who is determined that he and he alone will be the sole supplier to the nearby Army fort and this rancher doesn't care who he has to kill to do it.

This was a pretty typical shoot-em-up Western story. But even though typical it was nevertheless an enjoyable read. Murphy is a real sympathetic character, a man's man and a guy who has sort of lost himself to anguish but discovers that maybe life still has something good to offer him. And he is willing to risk his life to make that something come true and to simply stand up for what is right, even though at times he questions whether to become involved or just ride away.

The Way West

By Alfred B. Guthrie, Jr.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction 1950.

This is the story of a wagon train headed west on the Oregon Trail in 1846, starting off in Independence, Missouri and headed for the Columbia River and Fort Vancouver in the Oregon Territory. This is story of hardy pioneers, determined to reach their goal, despite hardship, accidents, sickness and death. People do die on the trail, one to fever, one to snakebite and one to premature birth. But the pioneers keep on trucking, looking for the gold at the end of the rainbow. At one point, the wagon train splits apart, as one group decides to head for California as they have heard the trail is easier than the one to Oregon. The pilot of the train, Dick Summers, is an old mountain man, trail wise and eager to get away from civilization and farming and back to his roots. His great wisdom and sound advice are the key to the success of the effort as he guides the pioneers through treacherous river crossings, across burning deserts, and on steep, nearly impassible mountain tracks. It's a pretty good story, engrossing and easy to read.
This novel was made into a movie in 1967 starring Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark and Sally Field.
A word about the way the native peoples are portrayed in this book. Guthrie doesn't have a much sympathy for the people who will end up being pushed off the land by his doughty settlers. He most often describes them as dirty, smelly, naked, thieving, lousy and shiftless, with their hands out for whatever they can beg or steal from the settlers passing through their country. At one point, one of the characters is describing an Indian cemetery, saying, "You'll never set your eye on more good Injuns than right there," meaning all the dead Indians. I wouldn't call it an even handed or fair portrait but certainly typical of the times in which it was written.

Review by The Pulitzer Project.