BOOK REVIEWS

ter Award recipient Robert J. Conley can the main character ride out in the FICTION won three Spur Awards, was chosen middle of the night, traveling for less Oklahoma Writer of the Year and was than an hour, then track down the bad C.J. BOX inducted into the Oklahoma Profes- guys? In the dark? And who exactly is Wolf Pack: A Joe Pickett Novel sional Writers Hall of Fame in 1996 the ghostly “Bigfoot”? That mystery is G.P. Putnam’s Sons and the Western Writers Hall of Fame never solved clearly. Despite the glitches Hardcover, 384 pages, $27 in 2015. His widow, Evelyn L. Conley, and head-scratchers in this story, Penguin.com has collected speeches, unpublished Crownover’s story is interesting. short stories and a short play that reveal Three people (and a dog) are mur- – Melody Groves the Cherokee historian, novelist and ra- dered in Arizona. We don’t know why, conteur at his finest. Some of the stories BUCK EDWARDS only that the scene is marked by its Shootout at Lost River are contemporary – “Plastic Indian” is viciousness. Meanwhile, Joe Pickett, hilarious – while a few are historical. Self-published who has been reinstated as a Wyoming All showcase Conley’s matter-of-fact Paperback, 197 pages, $10 game warden, is communicating with Amazon.com prose and his ability to often blend com- his counterpart in another district. It edy, pathos, longing and understanding. No. 6 in the Marshal Boone Crowe seems wildlife, weakened from the series set in Wyoming, Shootout at Lost winter, are being chased by drones until CAROL WRIGHT CRIGGER River is a traditional mix of gunfight- they die. But when the game wardens Five Days, Five Dead ers, lawmen, cowboys, miners, rustlers, try to trace who is doing it, they run up Five Star Publishing ranchers and standard bad guys. against the Department of Justice and Hardcover, 282 pages, $25.95 the FBI. Being told to stop investigating Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar W. M I C H A E L F A R M E R The Last Warrior does not go over well. And meanwhile, China Bohannon is one tough lady. the wolf pack gathers. This fast-moving Feminine and proper, she is resource- Five Star Publishing story, maybe the best of the Joe Pickett ful and independent. Though the other Hardcover, 380 pages, $25.95 Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar novels, is edge-of-your-seat exciting, the operatives at the Doyle & Howe Detec- characters are well-developed, the scene tive Agency consider China an office Michael Farmer brings the voice of setting is on point, and the conclusion is fixture, she proves her mettle in investi- the Mescalero Apache to life. The story completely fitting. gating kidnapping and murder, the .32 of Yellow Boy, a character throughout – Carol Crigger in her pocket and faithful dog, Nimble, this series, reveals turn-of-last-century JAMES CLAY close by. While the male detectives are Apache faced with changing life styles. Devil’s Due away, China wrestles with the baffling It tells of determined ignorance from autocratic government overseers, but Self-published disappearance of a woman whose sister Trade paperback, 117 pages, $4.99 appears alternately fearful, suspicious also the determination of the Apache Amazon.com and unconcerned. When the kidnap- to maintain their way of life and their per demands ransom, China and her dignity. Farmer’s attention to land as a Rance Dehner, James Clay’s straight- partners, after they return, must decide character, drawn with insightful clarity, shooting Old West detective, is back in whether the perpetrator will exchange puts the reader there. My only criticism action. This time Dehner arrives in a the hostage for money or whether he is the pace. Yellow Boy is precise in his town called Devil’s Due, where Beau intends other, perhaps deadly, results. thoughts, actions and deeds. He rarely Rawlins rules the roost and Dehner An intriguing, light murder mystery, if changes speeds, which makes the read- finds himself trying to stop a range murder can be called light. ing a bit plodding. A chase scene near war between cattlemen and nesters. – Harlan Hague the end perks things up. Yep, it’s a plot as old as Westerns, but – Melody Groves Clay writes with an easy style, is adept JAMES D. CROWNOVER at describing gunfights and the climax Sheep Pen Cañon MARCUS GALLOWAY proves to be quite a shocker. Fans of Five Star Publishing Snake Oil: It All Comes Around Clay’s series, or fans of old-fashioned Hardcover, 324 pages, $25.95 Five Star Publishing Westerns, will enjoy the ride. Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar Hardcover, 264 pages, $25.95 Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar ROBERT J. CONLEY Award-winner James Crownover Plastic Indian: A Collection of Stories and writes dialogue with the best of them. Professor Henry Whiteoak will Other Writings It’s clear, crisp, spot-on and delightful. keep you wondering if he is an outlaw, University of Oklahoma Press Sheep Pen Cañon, however, jumps from killer, hero, snake-oil salesman or all of Trade paperback, 158 pages, $19.95 scene to scene without using a clutch. It them. The story will keep you guess- OUPress.com feels more like an event mishmash, the ing as bounty hunters and lawmen hunt Whiteoak, who is hiding in plain Before his death in 2014, Owen Wis- writing style taking leaps of faith. How

APRIL 2019 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 25 sight. Whiteoak saves the life of Dylan many side stories thrown in, and gratu- page-turner that will keep your attention Garviss, who was wounded robbing the itous sex is sprinkled throughout. riveted. However, I found a great deal of Broker and Exchange building. Feel- – Sandy Whiting suspension of disbelief necessary. Forty- ing obligated, Dylan, an old friend and five years and people are supposed to Danielle, who has known Whiteoak JIM JONES remember what happened on such-and- The Lights of Cimarrón a long time, try to protect the profes- such a night? Really? sor and his colorful wagon. Whiteoak Five Star Publishing – Carol Crigger becomes devastated when he hears that Hardcover, 306 pages, $25.95 Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar he killed an innocent child in one of his DAVID C. NOONAN The Man From Misery robberies and pursues the truth to find Tommy Stallings becomes sheriff of out how the child died. This novel keeps Colfax County, New Mexico after the Five Star Publishing your interest. former sheriff retires. Stallings inher- Hardcover, 268 pages, $25.95 Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar – Lowell F. Volk its the problem of outlaws, who are brutally killing ranchers and their hands After shooting a 12-year-old girl who CHARLOTTE HINGER while stealing their livestock. Being new is about to be burned to death, Emmet The Healer’s Daughter to the job, Stallings turns to the former Honeycut is disdained by the town even Five Star Publishing sheriff for help and advice on how to after he is found not guilty of murder. Hardcover, 405 pages, $25.95 capture the outlaws – and to clear him Saved by Major Kingston, Honeycut’s Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar after being framed of taking a bribe. Jim former commander, Honeycut is asked Steal away to freedom, to own land, Jones does an excellent job showing the to help Kingston recover his niece, who to have the law work for you instead humanistic side of Stallings as he learns has been kidnapped to be sold as a slave. of against you. “Steal away to Nicode- and grows. That is when the adventure begins that mus” and have it all. Bethany Herbert, – Lowell F. Volk will keep you wondering what will hap- a young black woman, does just that. pen next. An entertaining Western with and Weary of caring for a mentally ill white LINELL JEPPSEN JEB several surprises. ROSEBROOK woman, Bethany knows if she doesn’t – Lowell F. Volk No Man’s Land leave while her health allows, she will die in the South. Unfortunately for her Wolfpack Publishing H. LEE PRATT Meghan’s Song and other Southern transplants, the Trade paperback, 196 pages, $8.99 WolfpackPublishing.com promised land of Nicodemus, Kansas, Five Star Publishing turns into nothing more than caves dug Weary Civil War veteran Jack Ballard Hardcover, 367 pages, $25.95 Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar into the hills, but it is home. With many drifts into a Texas community and rides mouths to feed and not even old leather right into a searing drought, a land feud, This novel answers the call for to boil, survival the first winter is iffy. romance, hard cases, fistfights and gun- expanding the Western genre. A movie With grit and determination, the small fights. Linell Jeppsen, best known for company comes to Jackson Hole, Wyo- band of former slaves build a life of her science-fiction and fantasy fiction, ming, in the mid-1920s to shoot a film freedom. Charlotte Hinger has delivered and screenwriter-novelist Jeb Rose- starring a local girl who made good in a compelling story of endurance and brook, who died last summer, deliver a Hollywood. Meghan, the star’s married backbone. plot as old as dirt, and while this novel sister, working at a dude ranch, falls for – Sandy Whiting won’t score as high as Junior Bonner, the handsome young director, and the Rosebrook’s masterpiece screenplay, star-crossed drama begins. Add a beauti- BONNIE HOBBS the easy writing style will satisfy fans of ful Italian woman who also has designs Mollyfar traditional Westerns. on the director but is also an enforcer Five Star Publishing for her ruthless uncle who has financed MICHAEL McGARRITY Hardcover, 393 pages, $25.95 the movie. Meanwhile, a federal agent Residue: A Kevin Kerney Novel Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar arrives to investigate an illicit whiskey Intent on surviving at any cost, W. W. N o r t o n & C o m p a n y trade, perhaps implicating Meghan. teenager Molly, through no fault of Hardcover, 384 pages, $25.95 Suspense builds as a landslide threatens WWNorton.com her own, finds herself in a back-alley to wipe out the crew that is filming in crib. Enter Wade Devlin, a boy Molly’s You can always depend on a Mi- the backcountry. age whose bitter father sends his only chael McGarrity novel to start off with – Harlan Hague son to the girl in order to “make him a a bang, and this one is no exception. man.” Instantly smitten, he decides to When the skeleton of a young woman J.M. MITCHELL Killing Godiva’s Horse wed the beautiful girl, but Molly puts is discovered, a journal written by the him off. Miss Heeshi, an older “lady of former owner of the burial property Prairie Plum Press the night,” rescues Molly from starva- leads authorities toward retired po- Paperback, 441 pages, $16.95 PrairiePlumPress.com tion during a hard winter, and Heeshi’s lice chief Kevin Kerney. The catch home-saloon becomes a refuge where is that the woman has been dead 45 Ranger Jack Chastain of the Na- women can pursue their dreams of mar- years and any witnesses are few and tional Park Service is an intriguing riage or simply survive in a safe place. far between. Filled with bad guys and and welcome series protagonist. Truly The story circles around too much with a few good guys, the story is a twisty refreshing, this novel contains plots that

26 26 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE APRIL 2019 ESTERN MUSIC involve Western lands rebellion, Kenya, rhino horn poach- W ers, and life in New Mexico. Perhaps those elements make this book unwieldy, but bless J.M. Mitchell for trying. He has taken on a big, international, action-packed plot and it works. – Edward Massey W. C . J A M E S O N KATHLEEN MORRIS In a Large and Lonesome Land The Lily of the West Alpha Wolf Records, $14 Five Star Publishing JohnDNesbitt.com Hardcover, 341 pages, $25.95 Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar This CD – 11 songs and a poem – combines Inspired by her find of the final resting place of Mary the talents of author, singer-songwriter Katherine Haroney in Prescott, Arizona, Kathleen Morris OLLIE wrote her first historical novel. An orphaned young Kate left REED JR. and past WWA president W.C. Jameson her home in Davenport, Iowa, stowed away on a Mississippi with those of former WWA board member riverboat, and forged her way across the American frontier. John D. Nesbitt, a Spur winner for novels and short story. This novel of Kate’s life, written in first person, is based on Jameson arranged all the songs and lends his fine voice to historical research, letters and the author’s excellent imagina- the singing and the reciting. But it is Nesbitt, breaking new tion. I was moved to tears many times by the story of Kate’s trails, who wrote the lyrics and the poem. What’s apparent is love for Doc Holliday and impressed by the vivid detail with that Nesbitt handles words as beautifully in songwriting as he which the author painted the story of star-crossed lovers. A does in fiction. new take on the O.K. Corral, from a woman’s point of view. This is from “Lone Winter”: – Linda Jacobs How the dreams died and withered in the grip of despair JOHN W. RAVAGE A shroud on the heart without candle or prayer. Black Star over Hollywood The root of despair here is lost love, and love or the losing of Xlibris it provides the topic for most of the album’s offerings, includ- Trade paperback, 228 pages, $19.99 ing my favorites – “Lonesome Jim” and “Old Rope Corral.” Xlibris.com I relax in the company of two faithful horses John Ravage has written extensively on African Ameri- Munching oats in the old rope corral cans in the West. This time, Ravage takes the topic for a wild Well, the hope never dies that we’ll find love again fictional romp through post-Depression era Hollywood. Ted Though the future we cannot foretell. Masters, a gifted dancer/musician from Memphis, Tennes- see, leaves the “colored-only” theaters behind (at the advice of Moms Mabley) and heads for Tinsel Town, where he is THE COWBOY WAY swept into a vortex of movie moguls in their own minds, all Go West bent on making him Hollywood’s first black singing/dancing Cowboy Way Music, $15 cowboy. Film buffs will enjoy the behind-camera descriptions CowboyWayMusic.com and wacky only-in-Hollywood hijinks. There are a lot of Summed up by the title song, this 13-selec- characters to keep track of, but Black Star serves up a heap of tion CD, the second by the New Mexico trio entertainment, along with a reminder of the prejudices suf- of Mariam Funke and Spur-winning song- fered by minorities on and offscreen. writers Doug Figgs and Jim Jones, is a theme album about the – Micki Fuhrman various circumstances that sent people into the American West. DUSTY RICHARDS Some sought refuge from poverty and oppression in Scotland Zekial (“It’s a Cowboy I Will Be,” written by Jones, and “What Price Triee Press Freedom” by Jones and Michael Coy) or from doomed love in Trade Paperback, 251 pages, $12.99 Ireland (“My Irish Flower” by Figgs). OghmaCreative.com Some were seeking quick riches (“Fool’s Gold” by Jones) or This adventure story is an accurate account of life in the peace after war (“Goin’ Home” by Figgs). early 1800s. The late Dusty Richards touches on the hard Some, like the Georgia farm boy in Figgs’s “I Make My Liv- life that the people who lived in the West had to endure just ing in the Saddle,” were just looking for a better way of life. to survive. In this roller-coaster ride, you will grow to hate I’m out here pushing cows Grissum McCord for his selfish ways as he hurts others in his I sure don’t miss that mule and plow quest to recapture Tilly, a runaway slave taken from him by History you can sing along with. Zekial. Likewise you will develop a strong relationship with *** Zekial Broome for his protection of Tilly and keeping her E-mail Ollie at [email protected] and send CDs to him safe from McCord. Don’t bypass this one. at P.O. Box 2381, Corrales, NM 87048. – Lowell F. Volk

APRIL 2019 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 27 GRETCHEN SKIVINGTON Kurosawa than Zane Grey, told splen- and poems by 51 women, including Echevarria didly by six-time Spur winner Richard first-time writers and award-winning Center for Basque Studies Press S. Wheeler, who died February 24. authors. Common themes include love of God, country, family, friendship and Paperback, 246 pages, $20 ETHAN J. WOLFE UNR.edu/basque-studies/cbs-press hard work. Amy Hale Auker writes, Comanche Sunrise: A Youngblood “There is no cowboy glamor around An insider’s view of Basque culture in Brothers Western here, no slim waisted jeans or bling on Nevada, Echevarria is a complex novel Five Star Publishing my shirt. I haven’t had a shower in six with disparate characters: young Basque Hardcover, 307 pages, $25.95 days.” Betty Burlingham recounts the girls and broad-hipped women, hard- Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar birth of a child – after her water broke, boiled Basque men – both business- When a grieving Comanche warrior, waiting for a livestock delivery and mak- men and herders; Chinese, Mexican, now living on the reservation, takes to ing coffee for the driver before heading Shoshone, Paiute. Told over a century the warpath against the hated Texans, to the hospital. There are funny stories in decade increments – beginning in Judge Isaac Parker sends two brothers like beheading a rattlesnake when he 1902, the one constant element is the – Jack Youngblood, a federal marshal, threatens your kids (Roni Harper). connection to the Echevarria Basque and Emmet Youngblood, the reserva- Later, that serpent became a tasty din- Hotel Saloon and Restaurante. In this tion’s police chief – to catch the warrior. ner. Savor each story, each poem. Be first novel, Gretchen Skivington displays Ethan Wolfe might want to buy a few transported to the authors’ worlds. It’s a unique blending of narrative as she in- good history and geography books a history we should cherish and pass corporates newspaper clippings, images before he tackles another novel like this. down to future generations. carved upon trees by Basque herders, While Larry McMurtry never let history – Denise F. McAllister poetry and playwright scripting. get in the way of his stories, Wolfe is no – Candy Moulton McMurtry, although Wolfe has an easy- THOMAS C. BICKNELL and CHUCK PARSONS RICHARD S. WHEELER to-read style. Indiscriminate fans of tra- Ben Thompson: Portrait of a Gunfghter No Name ditional Westerns might not object, but readers would be better off seeking out University of North Texas Press CreateSpace Hardcover, 665 pages, $34.95 Trade paperback, 328 pages, $20 one of the late Douglas C. Jones’s bril- UNTPress.unt.edu Amazon.com liant novels such as Gone the Dreams and Dancing, Season of Yellow Leaf, Winding A Texas journalist called Ben In 1880s Montana, a drifter finds Stair or The Search for Temperance Moon. Thompson “perfectly fearless,” and himself in the wrong town, barely Bat Masterson said that “it is doubtful escapes getting hanged and decides to if in his time there was another man stick around to figure out just what the NONFICTION living who equaled him with a pistol in heck is going on and how he can turn a life and death struggle.” Thomas C. the tables on the bad guys, who are SALLY HARPER BATES (editor) Bicknell, who has studied and written plentiful. This sounds like a traditional Facing West – Voices of Western Women about Thompson for years, has teamed Western. But how many horse operas Arizona Cowboy Connection with Chuck Parsons, a renown historian are set in a town called Throatlatch that Paperback, 208 pages, $15 of Texas and gunfighters, to produce a is transformed into New Dawn once ArizonaCowboyConnection.com monumental biography of the gunman the railroad arrives? Or has a female – the first book-length study of Thomp- character named Carolina Clemson? Or This is a valuable American treasure, son since Floyd B. Streeter’s a hero called No Name. It’s more Akira a collection of articles, short stories Ben Thomp-

28 28 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE APRIL 2019 son, Man with a Gun (1957). The authors Don Bullis starts his chronology the iconic photograph celebrating the follow Thompson’s often deadly life – with the discovery of dinosaur bones driving of the golden spike at Promon- and his relationships with a who’s-who that date to 200 million years ago and tory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869. of Western figures (Wyatt Earp, Doc doesn’t rein in until 2017. In between, Daniel Davis’s book is a biography of Holliday, Wild Bill Hickok and John this hefty volume, a natural companion Russell, but also a history of photogra- Wesley Hardin, to name a few) – from to two earlier Bullis tomes, New Mexico phy in the 19th Century and an account his service with the Confederacy and Historical Encyclopedia and New Mexico of the building of the first transconti- Mexico Emperor Maximilian to his life Historical Biographies, touches on signifi- nental railroad. During the Civil War, as gambler, gunman and lawman to his cant dates in the lives of colorful New he photographed the Union’s military murder at age 40 in 1884 at the Vaude- Mexico figures such as Kit Carson, railroad and captured images of car- ville Theatre in San Antonio, Texas. Billy the Kid, Elfego Baca and rancher/ nage on the battlefields. After the war, author Agnes Morley Cleaveland and Russell became official photographer BRENDA CLEM BLACK also on intriguing incidents such as for the Union Pacific Railroad, which Black & Kiddo: A True Story of Dust, the mysterious 1947 crash that would used his photos to entice investors. Rus- Determination, and Cowboy Dreams become known as The Roswell Inci- sell’s photographs are featured promi- Et Alia Press dent. The discovery of obscure facts, nently in the book, but, for comparison Trade paperback, 330 pages, $17.95 however, makes this book as much fun purposes, photos taken by his competi- EtAliaPress.com for the general reader as it is a valuable tors and comrades are also included. A daughter-in-law tells the story of asset to serious students of the Ameri- The volume contains a comprehensive her husband’s parents and their unique can West. How many of you knew that “Catalog of Russell’s Union Pacific love story. For sure, there were troubles Glenn Strange, who portrayed Sam the Photographs.” Invaluable for research- and tragedies to endure, but this mar- bartender in the Gunsmoke TV series, ers and delightful reading for lovers of riage of a singing cowboy with a feisty was born in Weed, New Mexico? Heck, Western lore. woman might be compared to his how many of you knew there is a – Robert Lee Murphy wedding present to her: a Pueblo wed- Weed, New Mexico? F. ANDREW DOWDY (editor) ding vase with two spouts connected – Ollie Reed Jr. by braided handle. Apt country-music Wanderer on the American Frontier: The narratives introduce the chapters. Their TOM CLAVIN Travels of John Maley, 1808-1813 letters to each other, plus diary entries Wild Bill: The True Story of the University of Oklahoma Press about their daily lives, enrich the story American Frontier’s First Gunfghter Hardcover, 244 pages, $27 and make the total package an easy, St. Martin’s Press OUPress.com enjoyable read. Hardcover, 283 pages, $29.95 The first half of John Maley’s journal – Lynn Bueling us.macmillan.com/smp/ surfaced in 2012. Its second half had This historian’s approach offers a long resided at Yale. A firsthand ac- DENISE I. BOSSY (editor) unique insight into the character of count of the West so soon after the The Yamasee Indians: From Florida to James Butler Hickok. A child of an Louisiana Purchase would seem price- South Carolina abolitionist Illinois farm family, he was less, but hold on: the poorly educated University of Nebraska Press brought to public attention in a maga- Maley wrote poorly. As it turns out, the Hardcover, 348 pages, $75 zine article that gave birth to numerous first half of his journal is much superior NebraskaPress.unl.edu dime novels and fictionalized biogra- to the second half. Seeking business op- For years, about the only his- phies. The result was his public persona portunities, Maley went up the Wabash tory books dealing with the Yamasee was elevated to mythic proportions. River in search of gold, to Missouri’s Indians traversed the 1715-1754 war Hickok’s life as a crack shot, a spy and lead mines near St. Genevieve, and to between European settlers and the scout for the Union Army, an effec- Missouri’s crown jewel, Big Spring. The Yamasees – a war, editor Denise Bossy tive lawman, a successful gambler, a second half details Maley’s trip up the writes – “that nearly destroyed South terrible actor and a lifelong womanizer Red River into southern Oklahoma, but Carolina.” Bossy has put together a col- are documented. Tom Clavin’s research the account is riddled with errors and lection of academic essays by leading also reveals Hickok’s insecurities and might be somewhat fictionalized. Still, scholars that approaches the Yamasees his decline as eyesight and natural Dowdy’s incisive scholarship points out as a people and does not just tell about defenses failed, resulting in his assas- Maley’s flaws and gives us a startling the war that takes their name. Their his- sination. This is a historical biography look at the pristine frontier. tory and identity are complex, and this worth reading. – John Mort anthology is an important addition to – Vernon Schmid American Indian studies. MARY BUDD FLITNER DANIEL DAVIS My Ranch, Too: A Wyoming Memoir DON BULLIS Across the Continent: The Union Pacifc University of Oklahoma Press New Mexico Historical Chronology: From Photographs of Andrew J. Russell Hardcover, 232 pages, $24.95 the Beginning ... University of Utah Press OUPress.com Rio Grande Books Paperback, 195 pages, $24.95 This author made me remember my Hardcover, paperback, 1,028 pages, UofUPress.com $68.95, $58.95 own winter chores when she wrote, RioGrandeBooks.com Andrew J. Russell is best known for “I have on all the warm clothes I own

APRIL 2019 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 29 and still it won’t be enough.” Short of grazing. Hightower also paints a portrait Affair” in a reasoned, professional man- money but long on grit, she and her hus- of political maneuvering long before ner. Some readers might not totally agree band drove their herd to the hay stacks he gets into the Boomers and Sooners with Hocking’s conclusions, but this book they’d purchased when they couldn’t (both names for settlers who tried to is a must read for anyone interested in the afford the trucking expense to bring it claim homesteads before lands were complete story of the Apache Wars. home. Mary Budd Flitner’s well-written officially available). Hightower calls his – Rod Timanus memoir gives many examples of her book “a story far more nuanced than a and Stan’s tough, shrewd will to thrive century-plus of mythmaking has condi- JEAN JOHNSON Grit and Gold: The Death Valley in a harsh world and maintain the life tioned us to accept,” and it’s certainly Jayhawkers of 1849 her great-grandfather started with inten- an important addition to the history of tion to pass it on to the next generation. Oklahoma and the West. University of Nevada Press The book is well worth a few hours of Hardcover, 272 pages, $34.95 DOUG HOCKING UNevadaPress.com armchair time. The Black Legend: George Bascom, The story of the Jayhawkers’ journey – Lynn Bueling Cochise, and the Start of the Apache Wars through Death Valley illustrates the MICHAEL J. HIGHTOWER TwoDot Books dilemma of overlanders in the mid-19th 1889: The Boomer Movement, The Land Hardcover, 373 pages, $24.95 Century who reached California’s Sierra GlobePequot.com Run, and Early Oklahoma City Nevada too late in the season, the folly University of Oklahoma Press Was open confrontation between the of believing tales and the risks of break- Trade paperback, 328 pages, $24.95 Army and the Apaches in the American ing new trail. Jean Johnson, likely the OUPress.com Southwest inevitable? It probably was. foremost authority on early Death Valley, Independent historian Michael J. But it took one spark to actually ignite has written a meticulously researched Hightower does more than chronicle the conflict, and Lieutenant George volume, based largely on diaries and remi- Oklahoma’s first land run in 1889, Bascom, in his zeal to accomplish his niscences, fragments of which are often when what had been part of Indian assigned mission, has long been saddled inserted into the narrative. While useful, Territory was opened to white settle- with the blame for starting the 25-year the general reader might find disruptive ment. He explains how the land rushes war between the two forces. In his these frequent insertions and occasional came to be, starting with the reloca- well-researched book, Doug Hocking parenthetical identification of sources. tion of Southeastern Indian tribes and explores the facts, myths, and partici- Johnson has gone to great lengths in continuing with Indians’ feuds with pants involved in the flashpoint incident personally going onsite to identify places white cattlemen who leased pastures for that came to be known as the “Bascom mentioned in primary sources and the

30 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE APRIL 2019 ESTERN VIDEO trails the Jayhawkers followed. Photographs and excellent W maps enrich the narrative. Today’s trail enthusiasts will find the volume a useful source. – Harlan Hague The Appaloosa PRISCILLA LONG The Writer’s Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Kino Lorber nd Blu-ray, $29.95, Writing Life, 2 Edition KinoLorber.com University of New Mexico Press Mention Marlon Trade paperback, 340 pages, $24.95 Brando and thoughts and UNMPress.com references either go to If you suffer from writer’s block, try Priscilla Long’s exer- the landmark firsts of A cises such as journal-keeping and making lists of great words. C. COURTNEY Streetcar Named Desire or She describes common structures, accompanying these with JOYNER On the Waterfront or the later work sur- brilliant examples such as Lee Zacharias’s “two-strand,” non- fiction meditation on her morose father, “Buzzards.” Long rounding The Godfather. What rarely enters the conversation then takes a deep dive into mechanics, showing how to punc- are the actor’s roles during the 1960s, sometimes One-Eyed tuate and the most common ways to organize a paragraph. Jacks, but rarely his “Universal period” of A Countess from Hong Her guide to sentence construction is almost revelatory in its Kong, Bedtime Story (a personal favorite of Brando’s) or The description of compound-complex sentences and the use of Appaloosa. fragments and phrases. Her unusual meditation on the types Kino Studio Classics has released The Appaloosa (1966) of adverbial phrases (manner, comparison, place, time, cause, on Blu-ray in a visually stunning new version that demands condition, purpose, and result) will improve anyone’s prose. renewed appreciation of the work of its star, director Sidney J. Long concludes with informed, humble chapters on the writ- Furie and especially cinematographer Russell Metty. ing life that may even lift you out of depression. Adapted by James Bridges (Urban Cowboy) and Roland Kib- – John Mort bee (Valdez is Coming) from Robert McLeod’s book, the story JOHN D. McDERMOTT, R. ELI PAUL and SANDRA J. is a deceptively simple one of how manly pride can corrupt LOWRY judgment and burn away common sense. It all starts simply All Because of a Mormon Cow: Historical Accounts of the enough. Trini (Anjanette Comer) falsely accuses Fletcher Gratton Massacre, 1854-1855 (Brando) of accosting her in a church, knowing that Chuy University of Oklahoma Press (John Saxon), who bought Trini when she was 15, will try to Hardcover, 222 pages, $29.95 kill Fletcher. That will give her a chance to escape him. But OUPress.com the attempt fails, and Chuy is humiliated, starting a violent At first impression, this book might seem to be of interest battle of wills between the two men over pride, the woman and mainly to specialists, but it contains a fascinating example Fletcher’s beautiful horse. of how messy the historical record can get. The editors offer Brando seems too mannered at first but finds the all-too a succinct account of Lieutenant John Grattan’s disastrous human faults that drive Fletcher in his quest to take back his meeting with Lakotas regarding a cow that had strayed from a Mormon wagon train into an Indian village. The meet- stolen Appaloosa and kill Chuy if he has to. Saxon is Brando’s ing turned deadly and ended with the deaths of Grattan, an equal in all their scenes, and their arm-wrestling match over a interpreter and 29 soldiers. The event became known as the scorpion is a great moment. Comer projects frailty and strength “Grattan Massacre.” After the summary, the editors offer 80 as Trini, but all three actors are supported wonderfully by expertly annotated accounts given by eyewitnesses, news- Emilio Fernandez, Frank Silvera, Rafael Campos and the glori- paper stories and government reports as to what happened. ous Miriam Colon. The accounts take on an eerie Rashomon quality as the stories It is how these performances are captured by Metty’s camera contradict each other, exaggerate, and perpetuate errors. The that draws us in. Universal’s star cinematographer since the book offers a case study in the pitfalls awaiting anyone doing 1950s, Metty’s work veered from genius (Touch of Evil, Sparta- research on a volatile topic and encountering primary sources cus) to the ordinary (Madigan). By the time of The Appaloosa, that tell dramatically different versions. Metty had established the “house style” for Universal in the – Abraham Hoffman 1960s, with every inch of the frame brightly lit, but work- LEE CLARK MITCHELL ing with Sidney J. Furie, Metty opts for dappled sunlight and Late Westerns: The Persistence of a Genre shadows for the interiors and a beautiful pallet of color for the University of Nebraska Press mountain locations. Hardcover, 318 pages, $55 The Appaloosa has often been shuttled aside as part of NebraskaPress.unl.edu Brando’s “wasted period” but has never deserved that neglect. Primarily about films, Late Westerns suggests that terms It’s a beautiful film ripe for rediscovery. such as “neo-Western” and “post-Western” are meaning- *** less in an evolving genre that has been “neo” and “post” all C. Courtney Joyner writes in many formats, including along. Despite its title, the book begins with an interesting screenplays, fiction and nonfiction. E-mail him at olcourt@ analysis of 1955’s Bad Day at Black Rock, demonstrating how yahoo.com. APRIL 2019 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 31 it disrupted the genre at the time. The moonshine and a batch of cookies.” the-facts, no-nonsense approach. Few book then transitions to recent films Dawn Nelson provides recipes for main- biographies have been published about by comparing Elmore Leonard’s 1953 stays “Cowboy Biscuits” and “Lemon Chisum, so O’Neal’s slim but thorough short story, “Three-Ten to Yuma,” to Pound Cake” and off-the-wall items narrative fills the bill, although there are the 1957 and 2007 films, showing how such as “Smashed Grasshopper Pie,” far too many spelling errors. each adaptation shifted the genre. Other “Roast Road Kill Chicken” and “Whis- JAMES E. SHEROW chapters explore disruptive films such key Bent and Hell Bound Cookies.” The Chisholm Trail: Joseph McCoy’s as Lone Star, Brokeback Mountain and No Short “Western Facts” are sprinkled Great Gamble Country for Old Men. Numerous refer- throughout for those who don’t cook or ences to authors, screenwriters and cin- prefer to sip “Dandelion Wine” while University of Oklahoma Press Hardcover, 338 pages, $29.95 ematographers (in addition to directors) reading about the “Healing Power of OUPress.com are welcome. But readers might have Alcohol.” trouble accepting A History of Violence as Finally, a book about Abilene, Kansas, ROBERT NOTT a Western. the cattle industry and the Chisholm The Films of Budd Boetticher – David Morrell Trail in which the only Hickok men- McFarland & Company tioned is S.A., a San Antonio sheep- TODD ALLIN MORMAN Paperback, 192 pages, $39.95 herder. In this detailed and fascinating Many Nations Under Many Gods: Public McFarlandBooks.com account, James E. Sherow, a history pro- Land Management and American Indian Robert Nott, a diligent writer of sever- fessor at Kansas State University, focuses Sacred Sites al books focusing on Western film stars not on cowboys and violence, but on the University of Oklahoma Press such as Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea business elements, with a healthy dose Hardcover, 258 pages, $39.95 and Audie Murphy, as well as a superb of ecology and weather, in detailing how OUPress.com biography of John Garfield, has written McCoy’s vision and stockyards helped Todd Allin Morman exposes the a new book on the work of iconic West- transform wind-blown prairie into a injustice dealt to American Indians for ern director Budd Boetticher. Boetticher business hub and an American legend. more than 150 years concerning the pro- made a series of hard, clean, Western – Johnny D. Boggs tection – or the lack thereof – of sacred masterpieces starring Randolph Scott in JOHN DARRIN TENNEY and cultural sites. He offers as example the 1950s. Boetticher also led a remark- Baseball in Territorial Arizona: A History, a series of controversies involving the able life filled with adventures worthy 1863-1912 Hopi and the San Francisco Peaks in of his films. Nott examines these films Arizona, Cave Rock and the Washoe and that life with care and authority, McFarland & Company Tribe on the Nevada-California border, brings a few of Boetticher’s whoppers Trade paperback, 190 pages, $29.95 McFarlandBooks.com the Blackfeet and Badger-Two Medicine back down to real life and makes clear in Montana and several others. Recent that Boetticher’s place in the pantheon John Darrin Tenney chronicles Amer- litigation has provided some mixed of great Western directors is justified. ica’s Pastime, Arizona-style – games, successes regarding these issues. Con- Unfortunately, many of Boetticher’s clubs, cities, stadiums and a few players sultation and negotiation have resulted other films failed to contain magic, and – in this uneven narrative. Tenney spends in some compromises and a greater a reader might be excused for skim- a whole chapter debating the merits of understanding among non-Indians of ming the sections on dogs like Killer a story that had members of the Boston the importance of sacred sites. However, Shark and The Wolf Hunters in order to Red Stockings serving as ringers for a Morman charges that Supreme Court concentrate on the unforgettable pic- Prescott team in 1876 before concluding decisions made up until the present day tures Boetticher made with Scott from that it was all a ruse. Then in the second reveal the ignorance of treaties protect- 1956 to 1960. paragraph of the next chapter notes that ing Indian sites. This powerfully written, – Jim Beaver “the heralded Boston Red Stockings well-documented work surely will cause assisted the Champions of Prescott ….” teachers, attorneys, politicians and – BILL O’NEAL Too often he comes across as a fan and John Chisum: Frontier Cattle King let’s hope – judges to rethink their views not a historian. Still, readers might find a on the ongoing discrimination against Eakin Press few nuggets, and the book well illustrates American Indians. Trade paperback, 164 pages, $19.95 how baseball helped induce civic pride. Eakin Press – Abraham Hoffman – Johnny D. Boggs The state historian of Texas traces the STEPHANY WILKES DAWN NELSON life and times of one of the West’s most Raw Material: Working Wool in the West Family Tree Recipes: Cooking with famous cattle barons: John Chisum, Cowgirl Uncorked, Volume IV likely known to most Americans as the Oregon State University Press Gray Dog Press subject of a 1970 hit – and highly fic- Trade paperback, 312 pages, $18.95 OSUPress.oregonstate.edu Spiral bound, 129 pages, price not listed tionalized – John Wayne Western or to GrayDogPress.com history buffs as a figure in New Mexi- Reviewing a book that awakens boy- You know you’re not in for a typical co’s Lincoln County War. But Chisum hood memories of working with sheep cookbook when the author’s introduc- had made a name for himself long is a welcomed read. It doesn’t disap- tion says that the genesis for this volume before Billy the Kid entered his life, and point. Stephany Wilkes earned certifica- was “a mishap with a bottle of apple Bill O’Neal gives readers his typical just- tion as a sheep shearer and brings her

32 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE APRIL 2019 experiences of learning the craft to life has reached the 1960s when times from Japan, and they discover evidence with rough-and-tumble examples. Her are a-changing … where teenage girls of an ocean in need of its own global- education started with a beginners’ recreate the Enola Gay’s A-bomb run, scale cleanup. With charming drawings, knitting class where she discovered drunk on Coca-Cola in an old Utah the book emphasizes ocean conserva- little domestic wool yarn was available. airplane hanger … where a routine tion and environmental issues. Why? To find the answer, she immersed checkup in South Dakota leads to blows – Rocky Gibbons herself in the wool industry, from between an old doctor and his older production to the marketing of finished patient … where a bus driver plays cop products. Horatio Alger stories come to and interrogates a punk teenager about BOOK NOTES mind with people of humble beginnings a possible murder during a Montana rising to the top. snowstorm … where an aging prostitute ANTHONY ANELLA and MARK C. – Lynn Bueling re-examines her life in Washington … CHILDS and where an Oregon bartender learns Imagine a City that Remembers: The WILLIAM F. WILLINGHAM from a patron the peculiarities about the Albuquerque Rephotography Project Grit and Ink: An Oregon Family’s Widow Collins. A collection filled with University of New Mexico Press Adventures in Newspapering, 1908-2018 humor, pathos and dry Western wit. Paperback, 162 pages, $34.95 Oregon State University Press – Johnny D. Boggs UNMPress.com Trade paperback, 224 pages, $19.95 OSUPress.oregonstate.edu Expanding on a series first published in the now-defunct Albuquerque (New The lifeblood of small-town America JUVENILE Mexico) Tribune in 1998 and 1999, is its local newspaper. In Grit and Ink, S.J. DAHLSTROM authors Anthony Anella and Mark C. William F. Willingham offers a rich Black Rock Brothers Childs use historic and contemporary historical saga through which to view photographs in an attempt “to foster Paul Dry Books the tumultuous times in the Pacific respect for Albuquerque’s natural and Northwest during the 20th Century and Trade paperback, 210 pages, $9.95 PaulDryBooks.com cultural heritage ….” The essays and beyond by profiling the Aldrich, For- photographs were displayed in an ex- rester, Bedford and Brown families and Thirteen-year-old Wilder Good lives hibit, Never Say Good-Bye: The Albuquer- the newspapers they owned. Their indi- in rural Colorado. He accidently breaks que Rephotographic Survey Project, at the vidual stories are enormously compel- an Indian lance point that has been Albuquerque Museum in 2000. ling for historians and general readers. in his family for generations. Wilder It all began in 1904, when recent college dreams of returning the broken pieces AMY ESSINGTON graduate Edwin Burton Aldrich joined of the lance point to Black Rock Bluffs, The Integration of the Pacifc Coast the East Oregonian newspaper in Pend- a mountain where obsidian can be League: Race and Baseball on the West leton as a reporter. During the ’20s, the found. He makes a list of 11 essential Coast paper looked downriver 300 miles to items needed for his quest. His par- University of Nebraska Press buy the Astoria Budget in the budding ents allow him to go only if he takes Trade paperback, 161 pages, $19.95 seaport. Eventually, newspapers in nine his friends, Big and Corndog, along. NebraskaPress.unl.edu other locations in Oregon and Wash- Corndog is a foster kid who is obsessed Most baseball desegregation books ington were acquired by the EO Media with Boy Scouts. Big is the pastor’s study Jackie Robinson and 1947, when Group. Willingham, a native of Pendle- son in the church they attend. This integration began in the major leagues. ton and respected historian, presents a family-friendly story is about kids who Focusing on the years 1948 to 1952 – view both intimate and panoramic. use their wilderness skills to achieve but going as far back as the early 1900s – Larry Len Peterson a difficult goal. An excellent book for – Amy Essington details the policies, middle-aged readers. teams and players during the integra- – Candace Simar tion of the minor-league Pacific Coast League, the first league, minor or major, PLAYS M.L. HERRING and JUDITH L. LI in which every team had “a player of RED SHUTTLEWORTH Ellie’s Strand: Exploring the Edge of the Pacifc color on its roster during the regular 1960: Trinidad, California; 1961: Beach, season.” North Dakota; 1962: St. Regis, Montana; Oregon State University Press 1963: Prescott, Arizona; 1964: Burns, Paperback, 112 pages, $17.95 FRANK LESLIE Oregon; 1965: Thermopolis, Wyoming; OSUPress.OregonState.edu Death Wields a Henry .44 1966: Wheeler, Washington; 1967: In this sequel to Ellie’s Log and Ricky’s Five Star Publishing Wendover, Utah; 1968: Cozad, Nebraska; Atlas, Ellie and her friend Ricky join Hardcover, 318 pages, $25.95 1969: Gregory, South Dakota other volunteers on a stretch of Oregon Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar Bunchgrass Press coast for a one-day beach cleanup. In Two more novellas from prolific Chapbooks, no prices listed addition to making new friends and Peter Brandvold, writing under his PoetRedshuttleWorth.blogspot.com picking up garbage, the pair learns Frank Leslie pen name, that feature his Red Shuttleworth’s “Americana amazing facts about marine flora and fast-shooting, sexually active hero Mike West” series of 100 short plays and fauna. They collect treasures like agates Sartain, known as The Revenger. For monologues set in small Western towns and a bottle which floated all the way fans of edgy, shoot-’em-ups.

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