BOOK REVIEWS

NONFICTION process, he adds to Roosevelt’s impres- Birth of the FBI. Doubleday. Hardcover, sive reputation as one of the giant 336 pages, $29.95, KnopfDoubleday. figures in American history. com. MARK LEE GARDNER. Rough – Jon Chandler David Grann’s well-researched, Riders: Theodore Roosevelt, His Cowboy compulsively readable account of the Regiment, and the Immortal Charge Up BRUCE A. GLASRUD and MI- infamous “Osage Reign of Terror” is San Juan Hill. William Morrow. Hard- CHAEL N. SEARLES (editors). Black one of the best nonfiction books of the cover, 352 pages, $26.99, Cowboys in the American West: On the year. A staff writer for the New Yorker, HarperCollins.com. Range, On the Stage, Behind the Badge. Grann trains his well-honed reportorial There have been countless books University of Oklahoma Press. Trade instincts and a keen observational eye written about various facets of Theo- paperback, 250 pages, $24.95, on the spate of greed-driven murders dore Roosevelt’s life, but it’s unlikely OUPress.com. that swept through the oil-rich reserva- that any offer the masterful mix of The editors of this volume have tion and its inhabitants in the boom rousing storytelling and historical ac- gathered a number of essays by several years of the 1920s. The tale finds sharp curacy contained in Mark Lee Gard- authors to note the unsung contribu- personal focus in the dual stories of ner’s Rough Rider. Gardner’s trademark tions made by black cowboys in our Osage tribal member Molly Burkhart, style imbues dry historical facts with American West. Freemen, not slaves on whose family suffered catastrophic loss, plot development and narrative action horseback, they participated in rodeo, and former Texas Ranger-turned-G- usually reserved for the best fiction, music, ranch work, on stage, on screen man Tom White, whose team of under- and has made his previous efforts, and in law enforcement, to name a few. cover investigators cracked the case and To Hell on a Fast Horse and Shot All to Some took on the risks of the entrepre- scored a headline-grabbing victory for Hell, popular additions to the legends neur, which yielded successful ranch the nascent FBI and its boss, J. Edgar of Billy the Kid and Jesse James. His and business ownership. A seemingly Hoover. Grann’s crisp, propulsive style take on Roosevelt is equally accessible universal truth written in one essay makes for compelling stranger-than-fic- and enjoyable. Gardner follows the stated, “The mutual interdependence tion drama (movie rights have already creation, implementation and legacy of left little room for arrogant displays sold for an astonishing $5 million). In the Rough Riders from the regiment’s of racial superiority…” in mixed-race the final section of the book, the re- creation shortly after the sinking of trail drives. This is a great collection of porter becomes a character in his own the USS Maine in Havana harbor in stories. investigation, journeying to the modern 1898, an act that spawned the Span- – Lynn Bueling reservation to uncover a conspiracy ish American War. Gardner shows us far more insidious than even the FBI a Roosevelt who is less a cartoonish DAVID GRANN. Killers of the imagined. In an era of continued ex- man of action, and more a thoughtful Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the ploitation and pipeline protests, this is military and political genius. In the essential reading. – Kirk Ellis

MATTHEW CHRISTOPHER HULBERT. The Ghosts of Guerrilla Memory: How Civil War Bushwhackers Became Gunslingers in the American West. University of Georgia Press. Hardcov- er, trade paperback, 327 pages, $84.95, $29.95, UGaPress.org. In 1870, Samuel Hildebrand’s The Life of Samuel Hildebrand (likely written by an editor) was published – the first known memoir of a Confederate guer- rilla. By the early 1900s, many Mis- souri bushwhackers – Cole Younger, William Gregg, John McCorkle – were writing their Civil War memoirs. Kit Dalton even wrote one, although many

22 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE APRIL 2017 historians today have discredited Ways Features accepted, perpetuated Cattle Company. Available at the Sul- Dalton and his accounts. Matthew and popularized an often fantastic phur Springs Valley Historical Associa- Christopher Hulbert writes that most version of Arizona and Sonora that tion in Willcox, Arizona. memoirs were, well, mis-remembered became embedded in the American at best. Hulbert, a cultural and military psyche through movie newsreels. The M. JOHN LUBETKIN. Road to historian, argues that cultural politics author offers a critique of mid-20th War: The 1871 Yellowstone Surveys. Uni- helped change popular impressions of Century American culture. versity of Oklahoma Press. Hardcover, these irregular warriors. The subtitle is – Doug Hocking 312 pages, $34.95, OUPress.com. a bit misleading as post-war gun-blaz- Road to War is the author’s third in ing on the frontier is rarely discussed, KATHY BLISS KLUMP. The Last a series of books chronicling the sur- and including Billy the Kid, who never Roundup of the “Y” Cattle Company: veys and building of the United States was a Missouri bushwhacker, is quite The Story of John Walter Klump and His second continental railroad by the the stretch. Still, whether you buy Association with the Partnership of Hurst, Northern Pacific. This volume covers Hulbert’s thesis or not, The Ghosts of Black, Kiehne, and Wiley in New Mexico the initial surveys through Dakota Guerrilla Memory is a fascinating, well- and Arizona. PetKat. Trade paperback, Territory and Montana and construc- researched read. 178 pages, $20, SSVHS.weebly.com. tion of the railroad through Min- – Johnny D. Boggs Ranching is a business, and some- nesota. These actions would lead to times the business can be far from further decimation of the bison herds JENNIFER L. JENKINS. Celluloid glorious. This regional history follows and eventual war with the Lakota. Pueblo: Western Ways Films and the In- the beginnings and tragic end of one John Lubetkin tells the story through vention of the Postwar Southwest. Univer- of the largest cattle ranches in New official reports, journals, private let- sity of Arizona Press. Hardcover, 227 Mexico and Arizona. The period is ters and newspaper articles linked pages, $45, UAPress.Arizona.edu. roughly 1885 to 1898. It ended with a together by explanations on what Although jargon infested, this final gathering of cattle that had to be was occurring. Twenty illustrations, book remains oddly readable, offer- sold to pay off debts. Local historian four maps and four tables add to the ing an excellent description of how to Kathy Bliss Klump uses correspon- wealth of first-hand information. Road photograph the American Southwest. dence and other documents to tell the to War is invaluable for anyone want- Charles and Lucile Herbert of Western story of the rise and fall of the “Y” ing to further understand the building

APRIL 2017 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 23 of the Northern Pacific Railroad and prevailed. But MacKinnon questions icling the difficulties of their leaving, its consequences. and downplays both his motives and travel and settlement as well as their – Bill Markley methods. Still, with Volume I, this is many and varied accomplishments in likely the most detailed study of the promoting equality of opportunity. WILLIAM P. MacKINNON (edi- Utah War and an essential resource. Known facts and resulting conclusions tor). At Sword’s Point, Part 2: A Documen- – Rod Miller are presented in an interesting, well- tary History of the Utah War, 1858-1859. written, engaging narrative. Arthur H. Clark. Hardcover, 650 pages, SHIRLEY ANN WILSON – Rod Miller $45, OUPress.com. MOORE. Sweet Freedom’s Plains–Af- While titled “documentary his- rican Americans on the Overland Trails JOHN OLLER. The Swamp Fox: tory,” editorial narrative outweighs 1841-1869. University of Oklahoma How Francis Marion Saved the American documents in this big book. Secondary Press. Hardcover, 232 pages, $29.95, Revolution. Da Capo. Hardcover, 400 sources inform the narrative, unfortu- OUPress.com. pages, $26.99, DaCapoPress.com. nately dominated by the editor’s own Westward migration included un- During the American Revolution, works. Of particular interest, the editor counted numbers of African Americans Francis Marion led a group of Patriot chronicles the widespread, if minor, – escaped slaves, freed slaves and men partisans in guerrilla warfare against influence of the Utah War in unexpect- and women born free. Owing to social, British regulars and colonial Loyalists ed places through newspaper reports, political and legal discrimination of the on the South Carolina frontier. Hiding letters and diplomatic correspondence. times, records of their passage and lives in the swamps, he earned the Swamp The book follows the war from the in the West are scant. While the hopes Fox nickname, and an updated biog- Army’s winter at Fort Bridger – includ- of African American emigrants mir- raphy has been long overdue. John ing Randolph Marcy’s heroic journey ror those of their white counterparts Oller writes with convincing author- to New Mexico – through its march – with the added dream of freedom ity, although he fails when he tries to beyond an abandoned Salt Lake City. – the realization of those expectations be cute: Colonial General Nathanael Virtually all historians credit Thomas proved much more challenging. Draw- Greene wanted Marion’s men to supply Kane’s semi-official diplomacy with, ing on available documents, the author the regulars with horses but also “to at the very least, keeping the lid on a reconstructs the experiences of several serve, in part, as cowboys – driving potential bloodbath until cooler heads representative black overlanders, chron- cattle to the army and away from the

24 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE APRIL 2017 enemy. And no cowboy was ever with- against fire, Pyne offers, derive as sand Miles in Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, out a good horse.” Cattle were herded much from culture as from science. Colorado, and the Indian Territory. Uni- by foot in the Carolinas in those days. Woven throughout his essays are refer- versity of Oklahoma Press. Hardcover, Otter documents the savagery on both ences to literature and other works 186 pages, $45, OUPress.com. sides and shows how violent the war about the legendary big burns. These In 1879, writer Samuel Nugent was in the South: 66 percent of the references illustrate the shared narra- Townsend and photographer John 1,000 Patriots killed in action and 90 tives and cultural influences that have George Hyde, both from England, set percent of the 2,000 Patriots wounded informed fire management practices out across the Western frontier and in action in 1780 fell in South Caro- over time. Together these two books wound up documenting a travelogue lina. Otter’s book might not replace offer a rich understanding not just of and guide for compatriots who might Robert D. Bass’s Swamp Fox: The Life the phenomenon of fire, but also our be interested in investing in the West. and Campaigns of General Francis Marion evolving ethos about how to best use The photographs are wonderful, as are as the definitive Marion biography, but and protect the wild lands of the West. an Englishman’s views of the West, it’s a great study of a complex man in – Angela Day such as Townsend’s description of a bloody struggle. Dodge City: “celebrated for its extreme – Johnny D. Boggs NANCY J. TANIGUCHI. Dirty wickedness, where greenhorns are Deeds: Land, Violence, and the 1856 San wont to be bamboozled, and where the STEPHEN J. PYNE. The North- Francisco Vigilance Committee. Universi- most villainous whiskey in America ern Rockies: A Fire Survey (Volume 3). ty of Oklahoma Press. Hardcover, 294 finds its largest and most constant mar- University of Arizona Press. Trade pa- pages, $32.95, OUPress.com. ket….” This version includes critical perback, 152 pages, $19.95, UAPress. Nancy Taniguchi’s study of the notes from the editors and an introduc- arizona.edu. creation and activities of the 1856 San tion by West Texas A&M University STEPHEN J. PYNE. The Southwest: Francisco Vigilance Committee is an professor Alex Hunt. A Fire Survey (Volume 4). University of indispensable addition to California Arizona Press. Trade paperback, 192 history. Ostensibly established to deal LAURA TREVELYAN. The Win- pages, $19.95, UAPress.arizona.edu. with crime and corruption, the com- chester: The Gun That Built an American A reader might expect this “To the mittee’s executive leaders consisted Dynasty. Yale University Press. Hard- Last Smoke” series to contain a sweep- of the city’s wealthy merchants who cover, 242 pages, $22.98, ing view of fire over time, comparing wanted legal title to the land where YaleBooks.com. regional differences in geography and port facilities would win them great Laura Trevelyan, a distant relative of terrain, and summarizing key facts profit. The executives, in demanding the Winchester family, researched and about significant historical fires. In reform, attracted up to 7,000 men to wrote this absorbing book about the these two books within the series, Ste- become secret members of the Com- family who manufactured “The Gun phen J. Pyne delivers on those expecta- mittee. Acting as a star chamber, the That Won the West.” She outlines how tions, but more importantly, evokes a executives ordered the arrest of murder the company’s founder, Oliver Win- deeper understanding of the meaning suspects, political rivals, and anyone chester, started his career making good, we make of fire and the experiences who actively opposed them. Without popular shirts and then saw opportuni- of those closest to it. Pyne approaches due process of law, the committee had ties and fortune in the firearms industry. this work in part from a scientific four men hanged for crimes that today After Oliver’s death, Sarah Winchester, perspective, explaining with simple would not have resulted in capital pun- an heir to the fortune, earned her own eloquence the impacts of different ishment. In carrying out their activities historical footnote by being ridden with forest and fire management practices. the committee ran up enormous debts guilt because her fortune came from the His collection of essays includes vivid, and eventually lost favor with the pub- deaths of American Indians killed by colorful depictions of the natural land- lic. Taniguchi utilizes the long-neglect- the rifle. She built a huge, strange man- scape, as well as the people who spent ed Minutes of the vigilance committee sion in San Jose, California, now adver- entire careers to preserve it and, in to tell this sordid story. The state’s tised as being haunted by the ghosts of some cases, gave their lives to protect textbook writers will be rewriting their the victims. Students of the West will be humanity from it. accounts of the committee’s schemes rewarded by reading this book. Fire refuses to recognize the jurisdic- after reading this fine book. – Lynn Bueling tional lines and boundaries that people – Abraham Hoffman have drawn over the past century, QUENTIN THOMAS WELLS. De- although fire is responsive to policies S. NUGENT TOWNSEND (au- fender: The Life of Daniel H. Wells. Utah that initially emphasized harvest and thor) J.G. HYDE (photographer), State University Press. Hardcover, 420 fire suppression, and later embraced ALEX HUNT and KRISTIN LOYD pages, $39.95, USUPress.com. natural fire and even prescribed burns. (editors). Our Indian Summer in the Far Although published by an academic The ways we prevent and defend West: An Autumn Tour of Fifteen Thou- press, Defender lacks the depth and ob-

APRIL 2017 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 25 jectivity expected in a scholarly biogra- thor had singularly followed the coin’s was accused, along with another of his phy. Written from a distinctly Mormon path, throwing in family history along other lovers. Who did it? Bill Brooks’s (and family) perspective, the history the way, the story would be more un- style is inventive. No quotation marks surrounding the subject is sometimes derstandable. As is, the reader is forced identify dialogue; the story is told from simplistic and sugarcoated, often rely- to jump from decade to decade, place several points of view, many in the ing on secondary sources with a cel- to place, character to character without same chapter. The narrator is identified ebratory bent. While the life of Wells is much warning. In the novel’s introduc- with boldface type, but for the reader, important and remarkable and worthy tion, it is recommended to read his first it can be jarring. The story does move of note, and while much of interest will novel, Two Gun: The Forgotten Legend along with backstory thrown in helping be found in these pages, the narrative of Will Adams, for this sequel to make the reader understand what led to the occasionally loses focus and wanders sense. I highly recommend doing that. murder. Tom Dooley is not an uplift- from the subject to a broader – too The covers (original watercolors done ing story, but the insights into human broad – view of surrounding history. by the author’s dad) lend authenticity nature are interesting. The book also suffers from frequent to the tale and makes this truly a family – Melody Groves digressions and repetitions and wants story. more thorough proofreading. – Melody Groves R.H. BURKETT. The Adventures – Rod Miller of Dixie Dandelion. Wild Rose. Trade KAY BETH FARIS AVERY. Unbro- paperback, eBook, 286 pages, $15.99, MARK ZWONITZER. The States- ken Spirits: Three Extraordinary Southern $4.99, WildRosePublishing.com. man and the Storyteller: John Hay, Mark Colorado Women. Western Reflections. Outlaws, warring Indians, wronged Twain, and the Rise of American Imperial- Trade paperback, 252 pages, $18.95, soiled doves, murdered parents, a ism. Algonquin. Hardcover, 608 pages, WesternReflectionsPublishing.com. struggling ranch, romance, gunfights, $35, Algonquin.com. Unbroken Spirits, termed by the saloons, drunken cowboys, Pinkerton John Hay served under and advised author as historical fiction and creative agents and a quest for vengeance – The presidents Abraham Lincoln, William biography, portrays the lives of three Adventures of Dixie Dandelion has it all. McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, women. The first, an American Indian Teenager Margaret O’Shea’s mother and he knew Samuel Clemens, alias referred to as the “Queen of the Utes,” is brutally killed, and the man who Mark Twain. So why not write a dual was favored by Chief Ouray for her did the killing threatens to abuse the biography of Hay and Clemens set dur- natural ability to charm their enemies. orphan and get rid of her as easily as ing the 1890s and into the early 1900s The second, a pioneer woman, expe- he has her mom. Margaret manages to when their acquaintanceship (friend- rienced the death of her husband as get away and manages to make a life ship might be a stretch) was strained he protested the encroachments of a for herself, but never abandons the idea over the U.S. war in the Philippines? land company, and who then contin- of getting back at the man who robbed The connection between Hay and Cle- ued residing on the land and writing her of her family. R.H. Burkett’s story mens never jells, and while the research her memoir, Land of Enchantment. The holds few surprises, but readers will and stories are first rate, the story is third lived through the turmoil of the find satisfaction in the way the protago- too disjointed to succeed. Still, it’s an Ludlow Massacre when the United nist ultimately dispenses frontier justice interesting look at America’s dalliance Mine Workers called a strike to con- to the bad guys who desperately have it with imperialism, and, well, there can front the mine owners. Readers will en- coming. never be too much written about Mark joy reading these rather brief accounts – Chris Enss Twain. of each woman. – Johnny D. Boggs – Lynn Bueling STEVEN J. CLARK. Fountains of Fire. New Horizons. Trade paperback, BILL BROOKS. Tom Dooley: Ameri- 342 pages, $14.99, StevenJClark.com. FICTION can Tragedy. Five Star. Hardcover, 350 Short, bite-size chapters make this an pages, $25.95, Gale.Cengage.com/ ideal book for picking up and setting WILLIAM LEE ADAMS. Two Gun: FiveStar. aside. However, it’s difficult to put it Legacy of a Promise. TDLAD. Trade pa- Tom Dooley returned from the Civil down once you start reading. Steven perback, 206 pages, $19.95, tdlad.com War a broken man. Dooley fought to Clark’s thriller is set on the greater A family story handed down through cobble his soul back together by having Navajo Nation and features Danny generations has finally found ink. a tumultuous affair with a married Whitehorse, the attorney introduced William Adams tells of a single silver woman. The affair, known openly in Wages of Greed, along with other dollar, illegally minted in 1804, given throughout the region, resulted in continuing characters. Well financed to President John Adams who passed more affairs, for Dooley fell in deep eco-terrorists process uranium tail- it on to his kin. What happened to it, love. However, when that married ings to build a bomb with the intent to turns out, is anybody’s guess. If the au- woman was found murdered, Dooley blow up Glen Canyon Dam. But when

26 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE APRIL 2017 spilled radioactive material sickens a his writing career turns out yet another T&P bearer bonds. Minor errors, such Navajo truck driver, an investigation work of historical fiction to add to his as saguaro growing where they don’t, by Whitehorse and his crew uncovers growing remuda of books. In Smoke are annoying, but the ending is obvious the plot and starts a race against time Wagon, Brett Cogburn wastes no time right from the start, and many inci- and destruction. While well-written establishing the setting in a lawless dents are predictable, leading to a lack and absorbing, the book is somewhat hell-on-wheels railroad town where of suspense. What derails this histori- diminished by editing errors. Sheriff Morgan Clyde establishes a cal novel, however, is the final chase, – Rod Miller modicum of law and order. Clyde which takes place on a Texas and has nightmares, engendered by his Pacific train as it races eastward from JAMES CLAY. Songbird of the West. Civil War experience, which help him Yuma, Arizona, to El Paso. The Texas Pioneering Press. Trade paperback, understand the inevitable life-or-death and Pacific never ran through New eBook, 128 pages, $6.99, 99 cents, showdown he faces. With one Spur Mexico and Arizona. Its tracks ended PioneeringPress.com. Award to his credit, Cogburn’s cred- at Sierra Blanca, Texas, where the T&P When a singer in a saloon is kid- ibility as a serious Western author is joined the Southern Pacific. napped, Old West detective Rance seen to grow with each book. – James J. Griffin Dehner goes out to save the “Songbird – Lynn Bueling of the West.” Dehner, a recurring hero MARC GRAHAM. Of Ashes and in several Clay Westerns, is trying to PAUL COLT. The Bogus Bonds- Dust. Five Star. Hardcover. 338 pages, cope with his own loss. Bullets fly, man. Five Star. Hardcover, 236 pages, $25.95, Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar. trails twist and mysteries are solved in $25.95, Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar. Marc Graham takes on the story ap- another fast-moving, easy-to-read tale Financier Jay Gould hatches a plan proach of writing as a dead man in this by a solid veteran of the traditional to take over the Texas and Pacific piece of historical fiction. What we Western. Railroad. Great West Detective League have is a life lived from Arkansas, May operatives Briscoe Cane and Beau 1846, to Western Australia, May 1878. BRETT COGBURN. Smoke Wagon. Longstreet, along with Pinkerton A boy of about 12 grows up, learns a Five Star. Hardcover, 382 pages, agents Reginald Kingsley and Saman- trade (two of them), fights in the Civil $25.95, Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar. tha Maples, must try to find the person War, saves a Yankee, beds and loses a An author still in the early stages of who is cashing in Gould’s counterfeit Southern belle, builds a railroad west,

ANNE HILLERMAN SONG OF THE LION A LEAPHORN, CHEE & MANUELITO NOVEL FROM THE DAUGHTER OF TONY HILLERMAN

“A must-have read ALSO BY ANNE HILLERMAN for anyone who loved the great Tony Hillerman novels, now carried on by his amazingly talented daughter, a superb writer herself.” —DOUGLAS PRESTON, #1 New York Times bestselling author

AVAILABLE APRIL 11TH, 2017 WHEREVER BOOKS AND E-BOOKS ARE SOLD WWW.ANNEHILLERMAN.COM

APRIL 2017 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 27 keeps on going west, building railroads the least bit of claustrophobia break The prolific master of multiple genres and supervising Chinese work gangs out in a sweat. Compelling reading. pays tribute to the pulp writers that in- after the Golden Spike. Brutal tragedy – James J. Griffin fluenced his formative years. You won’t drives him all the way west to Australia find any Westerns, per se, but you will where a brittle Brit causes the accident JIM JONES. The Big Empty. Five see a former buffalo soldier transplanted that, after the fact, creates the book. Star. Hardcover, 262 pages, $25.95, to Venus and, of course, Lansdale’s Scope, events and characters, charm- Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar. heroic Reverend Mercer fighting hell’s ing and rotten, work to make this a big Jim Jones’s fourth novel is set, as minions with his Colt revolvers. But story. are his previous works (Rustler’s Moon, even if you don’t like pulp fiction with a – Edward Massey Colorado Moon and Waning Moon), literary edge, Lansdale’s essay on pulps in the plains of northeastern New is worth reading. A.H. HOLT. High Plains Fort. Out- Mexico Territory – known as the Big laws Publishing. Trade paperback, 264 Empty. Characters from those earlier D.M. McGOWAN. The Making of pages, $24.95, AHHolt.com. books figure prominently in this story Jake McTavish. Strategic Book Publish- Historically, Bent’s Fort served as as well. This time out, 21-year-old ing. Trade paperback, 229 pages, $15, a major trading post on the Santa Fe Tommy Stallings, now a deputy sheriff, SBPRA.com. Trail between St. Louis and Mexican takes the lead. In 1886, Stallings must The author of Partners and The Great settlements. A.H. Holt pens her story track down an outlaw band led by the Liquor War again focuses on Canada’s of life in the fort and how a young vicious Jake Flynt. Jones’s efforts to Wild West in this tale of revenge. Jake leader rises to prepare the inhabitants mix humor and tender family mo- McTavish has been a loner since his for an attack planned by a traitor lead- ments with the perils and rigors of a wife was murdered, but when two ing a Comanche raiding party. In an manhunt work better sometimes than thugs waylay him and kill his dog … easy reading style, the author presents others. And his decision to alternate well, McTavish is awakened – “and a a story complete with the characters Stallings’s first-person narrative with whole lot meaner.” D.M. McGowan and events that might have been. third-person storytelling is a challenge writes in such an easy-to-read style – Lynn Bueling for the author and his audience. But in and with attention to detail and some Flynt, Jones has created such a magnif- unexpected twists and turns that you GREG HUNT. The Carroll Farm icently malicious character that readers practically overlook the overuse of pas- Fight. Five Star. Hardcover, 212 pages, will hang and rattle to the end in the sive voice and dialect. $25.95, Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar. hopes of seeing the outlaw get his due. Melvin Carroll is a Missouri farmer – Ollie Reed Jr. JOHN D. NESBITT. Destiny at Dry who wants nothing more than to work Camp. Five Star. Hardcover, 253 pages, his patch of land and perhaps marry ROBERT KNOTT. Robert B. Parker’s $25.95, Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar. his sweetheart, Rochelle Adderly. Revelation. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Hard- John Nesbitt has written another en- He cares nothing for the raging Civil cover, 336 pages, $27, gaging frontier mystery set in the Wyo- War and stays clear of the fighting. PenguinRandomHouse.com. ming landscape he renders so well. The All that changes when a company of Another story set in Appaloosa and narrator is a young cowboy, Whit Bar- Confederate soldiers commandeers his featuring territorial marshals Virgil nett. He befriends a drifting cowboy, farm, which soon becomes the center Cole and Everett Hitch. Appaloosa is J.R. Dunbar, who has ridden into the of a fierce battle. Eventually, after the booming. But just when the lawmen area looking for work. The story moves destruction of the farm, the Union think everything is peaceful, they learn quickly once Dunbar clashes with the prevails, and Mel, mistaken for one of a prison break that has liberated a ranch foreman, a man named Kelso, of the Confederates, is taken captive. number of convicts. Every lawman is your worst nightmare of a supervisor. With the help of a sympathetic Union out to recapture the criminals, and Cole Then, a suspicious death of an old major, he escapes and begins a har- and Hitch are on their trail. But Driggs, cowhand with a secret compels Dunbar rowing journey to save Rochelle and a wily murderer they’ve met up with be- to get to the bottom of the mystery. her family. On the surface, The Carroll fore, is set on a path of revenge. I hope Typical of Nesbitt’s work, the story is Farm Fight is a simple tale of survival. the publisher rethinks setting the Driggs populated with engaging characters, However, through the eyes of Mel, it is chapters in italics. It adds nothing to the rich in detail, and combines the best a scathing indictment of the folly and reader’s comfort. Be prepared for a book elements of the frontier and mystery futility of war, as well as a plea for the containing mucho graphic violence. genres – verisimilitude and enigma. sanctity of life. There is no glory in – Carol Crigger – Tom Carpenter this war, only death and destruction. Wounds and infection are described in JOE R. LANSDALE. Dead on the ETHAN J. WOLFE. All The Queen’s graphic detail. Two of the scenes are Bones: Pulp on Fire. Subterranean. Hard- Men. Five Star. Hardcover, 281 pages, guaranteed to make any reader with cover, 296 pages, $40, $25.95, Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar. SubterraneanPress.com. President Arthur requires the as- 28 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE APRIL 2017 ESTERN DVDs sistance of Murphy, no first name, and gives us Book Three W of the Regulator Series. His charge: to find, apprehend and shut down an operation of rustlers that is threatening the U.S. economy. It is so large, well-financed, and smoothly Jesse James. 20th Century-Fox. Blu-ray, run that Murphy calls it, well, organized crime. There is $9.95, FoxConnect.com. everything here from an allusion to Billy the Kid’s murder, Western Union. Kino Lorber. Blu-ray, through the James and Younger gangs and Belle Starr to $29.95, KinoLorber.com. two seminal scenes with that young man Robert Parker. No During the Super-8 collecting explosion telling by this reviewer who is the brains behind the massive of the ’70s, one of the great catalogs was operation. Along the way, though, you’ll be happy to know, Ken Films. Notorious the Regulator gets his quarry and the girl does not get him. for lousy box art, Ken – Edward Massey marketed dozens of 20th Century-Fox titles, all POETRY edited into one reel of silent glory. Star Wars RED SHUTTLEWORTH. Straight Ahead. Blue Horse. and Planet of the Apes Trade paperback, 117 pages, $16, BlueHorsePress.com. C. COURTNEY were the big sellers, but Three-time Spur winner Red Shuttleworth is that rare breed JOYNER Ken also pushed their of poet who combines unique word choices, wicked humor Westerns. and a love for the tough people and Spartan landscape of the After some serious lawn-mowing, I West. You can feel the burnt grass wind, hear Hank Williams ordered Jesse James for $12. Lasting nine color minutes, includ- tunes playing on the juke box in some kicker bar and smell ing the amazing horse-dive, Henry King’s 1939 film was still Copenhagen and bourbon on Shuttleworth’s breath in this gorgeous, even projected on my basement wall in this insanely outstanding collection of stark yet beautiful poems. compromised, condensed form. – Johnny D. Boggs Like Michael Curtiz’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, Jesse James seemed visually indestructible, so how could Fox’s Blu-ray BOOK REVIEWS (continued on page 30) fail so badly with buyers? Call it the tricky business of restoration. We’ve all seen it: digital fixes of faded prints dulling a movie’s original color palette, with skin tones drifting to purple and blacks becoming spotty gray. A Technicolor original of Jesse apparently no longer A cigar smoking, exists, or wasn’t hunted, so source materials shotgun and pistol toting for this Blu could be a print of a print, wash- Negro Woman of the ing away vibrancy and definition. Wild West, Mary Fields Priced at $9.95, the Blu of Jesse James could knock out any seems like a superb bargain, but it is, liter- man with one punch. ally, a pale version of the good DVD release A piece of historical of several years ago and has no new extras. fiction that is a In contrast, Kino Lorber’s $29.95 Blu-ray must read! of Fritz Lang’s Western Union is a visual stunner and a great example of a sweeping Fox Technicolor Western from 1941. Kino is painstaking in finding print sources, and Western Union is no exception. With only minor digital fixes, this release Mary was 6 feet tall, and weighed over 200 pounds, is a tribute to Kino’s dedication to the intention of the filmmak- and was the second woman in ‘history’ to carry the ers and to creating the best home-viewing experience. U. S. Mail, and the only ‘Negro’, for hundreds and Darryl Zanuck assigned Lang to Western Union immediately hundreds of miles when she first arrived in Montana. after The Return of Frank James, starring Henry Fonda. The lat- ••• ter film’s photography, versus Western Union, certainly a more This feature story covers Mary’s colorful life, from the vibrantly colored flick, is an amazing contrast to the sunlit big- plantation where she was born a slave in 1832, to the skies of Western Union and shows Lang’s versatility within the famous Steamboat race between the “Robert E. Lee” genre. Known for Metropolis and his searing crime dramas, the and the “Natchez” on the Mississippi River, to her death in Cascade, Montana, 1914. German director put it simply, “I like to make Westerns.” Although Lang would make only one more Western of stagecoachmary.net distinction, 1951’s Rancho Notorious, his feel for the genre is in Kino’s Western Union. As beautiful as when it premiered, and, ironically, not available from the studio that made it. APRIL 2017 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 29 WESTERN MUSIC BOOK REVIEWS (from page 29) JUVENILE THE COWBOY WAY. The JAMES J. GRIFFIN. A Ranger Grown. Painted Pony. Cowboy Way. Cowboy Way Music, Trade paperback, 129 pages, $9.99, PaintedPonyBooks.com. $15, CowboyWayMusic.com. The eighth in this series finds Texas Ranger youngsters Nate When Jim Jones and Doug Figgs, Stewart and Hoot Harrison up against outlaws, prairie fires both winners of songwriting Spur and hostile Indians while trying to break in some new Rang- Awards as well as a passel of other ers. There’s more than enough action to hold the attention of Western music honors, teamed younger readers, but in this day and age, some parents might up with master musician Mariam object to the commendation, rather than condemnation, of Funke (Spanish guitar, acoustic hazing new recruits. guitar, electric guitar, bass, drums, etc.) to form a trio called The Cowboy Way, I expected BOOK NOTES great things. Man, I nailed that one. Right out of the chute, CLIFTON ADAMS. The Desperado. Amazon. eBook, $5, the trio’s debut CD won the 2017 National Cowboy and Amazon.com. Western Heritage Museum’s Wrangler CLIFTON ADAMS. A Noose for the Desperado. Amazon. Award for best traditional Western eBook, $5, Amazon.com. album. Easy to understand why. The Long before he won back-to-back Spurs in 1969 and 1970 for CD starts out hell bent for leather with Tragg’s Choice and The Last Days of Wolf Garnett, Clifton Adams “Los Ladrones,” about horse rustlers had earned a reputation as a solid writer of traditional West- riding hard for the refuge of a New erns. (He was exceptional at noirs, too). Many of his novels have Mexico mountain range whose Spanish become available as eBooks, including his first Westerns. The OLLIE name means the thieves. Other gems Desperado (1950) and its sequel, A Noose for the Desperado (1951), REED JR. among the 12 cuts are “Don’t Look first published as Gold Medal paperbacks, follow the tortured Back,” about staying ahead of the aging trail of Tall Cameron, a young gunfighter in post-Civil War process; the love song “A Horse Half As Wild”; and “Take Texas who is raw, rough and anti-heroic in a time when most Me Back to Texas When I Die,” Jones and co-writer Kristyn Western novelists were writing about straight-shooting men in Harris’s tribute to their native state. white hats. Adams died of a heart attack in 1971 at age 52, but young novelists could learn a few tricks by reading his prose. MISS DEVON & THE OUTLAW. City of Dreams. Sharin’ The Moon Records, $17, MissDevonAndTheOutlaw.com. ERICA ARMSTRONG DUNBAR. Never Caught: The The city of this CD’s title is Port Townsend, Washington, Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona and the title song is a swinging tribute to that place written Judge. Atria. Hardcover, 272 pages, $26, by Miss Devon (Devon Dawson) SimonAndSchusterPublishing.com. and her brother, Jerry Osborne, the Certainly not a Western, but anyone interested in American latter a longtime Port Townsend history should find this book fascinating. In 1796, a young resident. That high-stepping female slave – property of President George Washington and history lesson kicks off a 19- First Lady Martha Washington – fled Philadelphia for free- cut effort featuring some of the dom. The president used all his powers to catch the 22-year- best of Dawson’s work with her old runaway, and Erica Dunbar delivers a powerful true story present sidekick the Outlaw (Jessie of a black woman’s fight for freedom in a new land. Robertson) and with her other recording partners in the Texas RAY HOGAN. Wanted: Dead or Alive: A Western Duo. Black- Trailhands and Badger & the Belles. There’s so much fun stone. Trade paperback, 250 pages, $14.95, stuff here it’s difficult to pick favorites, but I’m especially Downpour.com. partial to “Swingtime Cowgirl,” “Gypsy Moon,” Dawson Two novellas from the prolific author of traditional West- and Lyn Ryan’s “Play Faded Love, I Gotta Go Home,” erns from the 1950s until his death in 1998. “Between Life Johnny Mercer and Robert Emmett Dolan’s “Hootin’ Owl and Death” sends ex-con Dade Lockett to Tucson to settle the Trail” and “Cute Boot,” Dawson’s version of “A Zoot Suit score with Pete Dillard, his partner in a stagecoach robbery for My Sunday Girl,” a 1942 song by L. Wolfe Gilbert and who abandoned him during the chase and took off with all the Bob O’Brien. The Outlaw shines on “Ding Dong Daddy.” money. But Dillard’s plan is interrupted when he comes upon *** a ranch raided by riders in hoods. In “Wanted: Dead or Alive,” E-mail Ollie at [email protected] and send CDs to Ben Jordan tries to deliver $20,000 to a dead man’s wife, but him at P.O. Box 2381, Corrales, NM 87048. bad guys want the loot for themselves.

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