FFB Review: GHOST TOWN GOLD by William Colt MacDonald Reviewed by Barry Ergang

Today for FFB, I am running Barry’s 2013 review of Ghost Town Gold by William Colt MacDonald. Have a great weekend and read!

 

GHOST TOWN GOLD (1935) by William Colt MacDonald

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

 

After killing the town of Prospect's deputy sheriff and wounding banker Jim Thornton, Jake Lamotte and his gang think they've successfully gotten away with the fifty thousand dollars in gold coins they stole from the bank. When a posse is obviously gaining on them, Lamotte decides their best move is to head into the Pequino Mountains, where they might lose their pursuers. "If we can't," Lamotte tells the other five men, "we'll hold 'em off in the cave. We could stand off an army there, I reckon."

 

 

His prediction is wrong—fatally so. They fight it out with the posse for two days, managing to kill some of them, until their own guns are silenced. When members of the posse enter the cave, they find the outlaws' bodies. What they can't find is the stolen gold.

 

 

Twenty years later, three men ride into Prospect. "The three were Tucson Smith, Lullaby Joslin and Stony Brooke, owners of the 3-Bar-O Ranch, pardners (sic) in the breeding of cattle, tracking down of law-busters and in general all-around trouble-shooting...(M)en called them by various names...Probably the title which fitted them best and by which they were most widely known was that of The Three Mesquiteers."

 

 

Leaving their ranch in the capable hands of employees, the Mesquiteers have come to Prospect, according to Tucson, to look at and possibly purchase some bulls from cattleman Marty Barrett. On the trail Tucson briefly relates the story of the Lamotte gang and the missing gold, which he'd learned from Barrett the year before at a cattlemen's convention, and Lullaby immediately knows the business about the bulls is...well, bull. Tucson wants to search for the missing gold. Stony, who always craves "real excitement," is as eager to proceed as Lullaby is exasperated about a probable wild goose chase.   

 

 

Mostly an action-loaded western adventure but also partly a detective story—though not of the fair-play variety—Ghost Town Gold teams the Mesquiteers with pretty Sabina Thornton, daughter of the late banker; a feisty older woman named Stampmill Randle; Marty Barrett; and Border Ranger Jerry Woodruff, to try to solve multiple mysteries, one of which is a murder. Who has been sending Sabina notes directing her to the ghost town of Nemesis with the promise of recovering the missing gold? Who has taken a potshot at the Mesquiteers soon after their arrival in Nemesis? What about the so-called Dragon Man? Is he just an elderly eccentric or someone more sinister?  

 

Complicating matters is the presence in Nemesis of Dirk Barrington and his gang. Although they have another reason for being there, they want the gold for themselves and have no reluctance about killing to obtain it. Having been denied rooms at the Nemesis Hotel by the Mesquiteers, who with their friends are staying in the long-abandoned establishment, the Barrington gang has taken up temporary residence across the street in the Blue Bird Theatre. A showdown is inevitable.

 

 

Ghost Town Gold is pure entertainment of the pulpiest kind, and is recommended to readers who aren't concerned with psychological portraits, philosophical digressions, or poetic prose, and only want some rip-snortin' fun that includes pounding hooves and six-shooters spurting hot lead. If I have a nit to pick, it's the one concerning admonitions to writers about speech attributions that William Colt MacDonald consistently violates. Instead of letting said and ask stand alone, he almost invariably tacks on an adverb—e.g., "he said darkly." Or—more frequently—he shuns said in favor of other words: yelled, howled, bragged, denied, drawled, jerked out, sneered, to cite a handful. The story's mix of mystery, suspense, action and humor will most likely have readers galloping past them.    

 

 

 

Barry Ergang © 2013, 2020

 

Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s written work has appeared in numerous publications, print and electronic. Some of it is available at Amazon and at Smashwords. His website is http://www.writetrack.yolasite.com/.

FFB Review: "GHOST TOWN GOLD" (1935) by William Colt MacDonald

Friday means Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott. Please welcome back Barry Ergang and make sure you check out the other reading possibilities here after you read the review below……

GHOST TOWN GOLD (1935) by William Colt MacDonald

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

After killing the town of Prospect's deputy sheriff and wounding banker Jim Thornton, Jake Lamotte and his gang think they've successfully gotten away with the fifty thousand dollars in gold coins they stole from the bank. When a posse is obviously gaining on them, Lamotte decides their best move is to head into the Pequino Mountains, where they might lose their pursuers. "If we can't," Lamotte tells the other five men, "we'll hold 'em off in the cave. We could stand off an army there, I reckon."

His prediction is wrong—fatally so. They fight it out with the posse for two days, managing to kill some of them, until their own guns are silenced. When members of the posse enter the cave, they find the outlaws' bodies. What they can't find is the stolen gold.

Twenty years later, three men ride into Prospect. "The three were Tucson Smith, Lullaby Joslin and Stony Brooke, owners of the 3-Bar-O Ranch, pardners (sic) in the breeding of cattle, tracking down of law-busters and in general all-around trouble-shooting...(M)en called them by various names...Probably the title which fitted them best and by which they were most widely known was that of The Three Mesquiteers."

Leaving their ranch in the capable hands of employees, the Mesquiteers have come to Prospect, according to Tucson, to look at and possibly purchase some bulls from cattleman Marty Barrett. On the trail Tucson briefly relates the story of the Lamotte gang and the missing gold, which he'd learned from Barrett the year before at a cattlemen's convention, and Lullaby immediately knows the business about the bulls is...well, bull. Tucson wants to search for the missing gold. Stony, who always craves "real excitement," is as eager to proceed as Lullaby is exasperated about a probable wild goose chase.   

Mostly an action-loaded western adventure but also partly a detective story—though not of the fair-play variety—Ghost Town Gold teams the Mesquiteers with pretty Sabina Thornton, daughter of the late banker; a feisty older woman named Stampmill Randle; Marty Barrett; and Border Ranger Jerry Woodruff, to try to solve multiple mysteries, one of which is a murder. Who has been sending Sabina notes directing her to the ghost town of Nemesis with the promise of recovering the missing gold? Who has taken a potshot at the Mesquiteers soon after their arrival in Nemesis? What about the so-called Dragon Man? Is he just an elderly eccentric or someone more sinister?  

Complicating matters is the presence in Nemesis of Dirk Barrington and his gang. Although they have another reason for being there, they want the gold for themselves and have no reluctance about killing to obtain it. Having been denied rooms at the Nemesis Hotel by the Mesquiteers, who with their friends are staying in the long-abandoned establishment, the Barrington gang has taken up temporary residence across the street in the Blue Bird Theatre. A showdown is inevitable.

Ghost Town Gold is pure entertainment of the pulpiest kind, and is recommended to readers who aren't concerned with psychological portraits, philosophical digressions, or poetic prose, and only want some rip-snortin' fun that includes pounding hooves and six-shooters spurting hot lead. If I have a nit to pick, it's the one concerning admonitions to writers about speech attributions that William Colt MacDonald consistently violates. Instead of letting said and ask stand alone, he almost invariably tacks on an adverb—e.g., "he said darkly." Or—more frequently—he shuns said in favor of other words: yelled, howled, bragged, denied, drawled, jerked out, sneered, to cite a handful. The story's mix of mystery, suspense, action and humor will most likely have readers galloping past them.   

Barry Ergang © 2013

A Derringer Award winner, some of Barry's written work is available at Amazon and Smashwords. 

FFB Review: Six Shooter Showdown by William Colt Macdonald

This is Friday and that means Friday’s Forgotten Books. Patrick Ohl returns today with his review of SIX SHOOTER SHOWDOWN by William Colt Macdonald. More reviews and great books to read suggestions can be found over at Patti’s blog.

Throughout my history as a blogger I have eagerly taken advantage of any opportunity to discuss Westerns. Although I’m miles from being an expert (my knowledge of the genre is superficial at best), I really do admire it and love watching old Westerns on TV, especially starring John Wayne. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one of my all-time favourite films. I highly enjoy Steve Hockensmith’s Holmes on the Range tales, and I love the two novels William DeAndrea lived to write about Lobo Blacke and Quinn Booker. But how else can I sneak a Western in a blog devoted to mysteries? Why, by finding an example of the genres crossing over, that’s how!

William Colt Macdonald’s Six Shooter Showdown begins with ranch owner Alex Bishop making a hefty withdrawal of sorts—he is borrowing seven thousand dollars in gold from the bank, but since the bank hasn’t got that kind of cash lying around in the open, the banker asks his brother in the city to lend Bishop the money. Well, all goes smoothly—in fact, the lender, Gibson Haynes, is almost paranoid in the precautions he takes. He counts out the money himself, as does his secretary, as does Bishop. Then they roll it up into newspaper so it doesn’t clink and stuff it into a sack. Then, the sack is tied up and sealed with wax, with an imprint made by Bishop’s ring. From that moment on, the sack is never out of Bishop’s sight. On the train ride, he sits with his feet resting on the sack. So that by the time he reaches town, he’s got the same sack as he started off with.

Suddenly, gunshots sound! Some crazy hombre stages a hold-up, shooting Bishop twice in the arm and riding off with the sack of gold before being shot down by a witness, Matt Kaiser. He stumbles into an alleyway and dies there, with the sack of gold nearby. The sack is whisked off to the bank, where it is opened… and to the shock of everyone present, the sack hasn’t got gold anymore, but silver coins worth only a fraction of the original seven grand!

Enter Rainbow Rhodes and his trusty pard, Frosty Ferguson, who just happen to be riding by. Rainbow Rhodes is the Sherlock Holmes of the bunch, and I admire the way the Great Detective has been Westernised through his character. He can be tough when he has to be (which happens fairly frequently). He can wisecrack with the best of ‘em, right alongside the likes of Archie Goodwin. He can handle a six-shooter and as if that weren’t enough, he can beat anybody in that noble pastime of chess.

The events onto which Rainbow and Frosty have stumbled are intriguing… but to be perfectly honest, the Western elements beat out the mystery elements any day. Let’s start with the good stuff: it’s a good story. There are plenty of villains, a lot of nasty characters and double-crossers who need to be taught a lesson. There’s nobody approaching the sheer memorability of Liberty Valance, but then again, few villains do.

But the main reason the Western elements beat out the mystery elements is this: the mystery elements are terrible! The solution to the impossible substitution hasn’t got one ounce of inspiration behind it. It’s terribly mechanical and routine. The witnesses spend 200 pages saying “Goddamit man, I’m telling you all that I know!” before suddenly remembering “Hey, wait-a-minute, you’re right! I was forgetting something!” So you never get a chance to solve the “how” and “who” is obvious very early on. But not only is the solution unfair, it’s uninspired. There’s no cleverness behind this trick. It’s dull, dull, dull, and the two false solutions I came up with on my own time are far better than any solution, real or false, proposed by the author.

Although I don’t regret reading this book, I’m glad I read it via Interlibrary Loan, because I think I would have regretted purchasing it. It’s a solid and enjoyable Western, though apart from its interpretation of a Westernised Great Detective there’s little in it to make it truly memorable. With a decent mystery, it would have simply been an average story. But because the mystery is not very good or inspired, the overall quality of this book seems to me slightly sub-par. It’s not like there’s anything morally objectionable to the book, but there are definitely far better ones to read out there.

Patrick Ohl ©2013

The nineteen-year-old Patrick Ohl really ought to be studying for exams, but instead of that he writes reviews of books he reads on his blog, At the Scene of the Crime. In his spare time he conducts genetic experiments in his top-secret laboratory, hoping to create a creature as terrifying as the Giant Rat of Sumatra in a bid to take over the world. His hobbies include drinking tea and going outside to do a barbecue in -10°C weather.