"Doomsday Mesa" by Chap O'Keefe

Originally published as a Black Horse Western in 1995, Chap O’Keefe’s Doomsday Mesa has long been out of print. Thanks to the e-book revolution, it is now available for Kindle. I greatly enjoyed the first Chap O’Keefe book I read, Misfit Lil Cheats the Hangrope, so I was excited going into Doomsday Mesa. It certainly lived up to my high hopes, but it also showed a different side of O’Keefe. From the opening pages, Misfit Lil Cheats the Hangrope was laced with action, humor, and mystery. Doomsday Mesa shows a darker side of the West. It’s not a pretty picture, but neither was life in the old West. O’Keefe mixes the bitter truths of Western history (the Donner party cannibalism tragedy and the Sand Creek Massacre) with a compelling fictional narrative, and the result is another winning Western drama from veteran author O’Keefe.

The protagonist of Doomsday Mesa is Yale Cannon. Once a wild, gun-toting youth, he matured while fighting for the Union in the Civil War and was eventually appointed as a Deputy Marshall. He may be older, wiser, and grayer, but he hasn’t forgotten his youth—or the girl he loved, Jane Bell. So, when he is ordered to proceed to Antelope to bring back wanted murderer William Effingham, he decides to find out what happened to his old crush. But the town of Antelope has other plans in mind for the Deputy Marshal.

Arriving in Antelope, Cannon is mistaken for a cattle rustler cultist and narrowly escapes a showdown. Investigating the matter further, Cannon discovers the town’s boiling resentment towards Brother Abel Anson Pryor and his followers who have taken over Jerusalem Pastures, which the locals are now calling Doomsday Mesa. Meanwhile, Cannon seeks out the town elder, Reverend Ephraim McDowell, and his daughter, schoolteacher Kate, to learn about Jane Bell. Disaster looms, however, as tensions between the townspeople and the cult reach the breaking point, and Cannon finds himself caught between two firecrackers—Effingham and Pryor—and must save Kate’s reckless younger sister, Rose, before she becomes victim to her own naïve delusions.

Doomsday Mesa is a lean book written in tough, compact prose that packs in a lot of drama in short space. Don’t let the size of the novel fool you—O’Keefe has assembled a terrific ensemble cast whose individual stories weave together a complex narrative layered with drama and anticipation.

As with the Misfit Lil books, O’Keefe excels at crafting rugged, independent, and believable female characters that defy stereotype. Kate doesn’t fit the conventional mould of a schoolmarm whose spinster ways melt at the first sight of the hero. Far from it! Kate is a forthright suffragette, and even occupies a position as one of the town’s leaders, but she’s also cognizant of the weight of her responsibilities, both to the town and to her near-blind father, whom she looks after. And of all the characters in the book, Rose is perhaps the most relatable, human, and vulnerable of the bunch. Young, brash, and a romantic at heart, she longs to run away with her lover and rebels against everything her family stands for. How many of us were like that in our own youth? Locating those universal emotions in his characters is what makes O’Keefe’s West so compelling and relatable. He doesn’t treat the West as some static, dusty entity, but engages with the emotional and moral issues the way real people would have.

Doomsday Mesa is a good way to get to know O’Keefe, and now’s the perfect time, as Gary Dobbs over at The Tainted Archive is offering a 2-for-1 promo deal with O’Keefe’s eBooks. See his blog for official details.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Doomsday Mesa:

“Cannon was merciless. His first shot took one of the gunnies in the leg. He was jerked off his feet, blood bubbling from a shattered kneecap. Flung raglike to the ground, he writhed and mewled helplessly, churning the dust to a chocolate mud beneath his broken limb.”

“Few windows still held glass. They were just black holes in moon-silvered timber siding. ‘Like empty eye sockets,’ said Rose.”

“Atop the rim was a big mesa, covering many thousand acres. Part of it was grassland, but the lately titled Jerusalem Pastures did not live up to the promise of their name. The tableland was poor farming land. Nature had been in a mean mood when she fashioned this rocky section. The mesa was riven by deep, treacherous canyons – and it had not been improved by the scars of more abortive mine workings.”

“Cannon barged past him. Though the crashing of guns had ceased, a wild sound of arguing voices swelled from the saloon. The whole building seemed crouched like a wounded dog cringing in the shadows at the side of Main Street, growling and gathering itself up for another frantic leap into gut-ripping violence.”

"The Rare Breed" by Theodore Sturgeon (Gold Medal, 1966)

Theodore Sturgeon is most famous for his science-fiction short stories and novels, but he also wrote Western short stories, and a single full-length Western book – a novelization of the 1966 movie The Rare Breed, which starred James Stewart, Maureen O’Hara and Brian Keith. The movie tie-in was based on an original screenplay by Ric Hardman. Sturgeon’s plot differs slightly from the finished movie, but I am unsure of whether these story changes were made by Sturgeon, or whether the script itself was altered after production began (and, presumably, after Sturgeon’s novel was already written).

Sturgeon’s novel opens in St. Louis, with two English women – mother Martha Evans and her daughter Hilary – arriving at a cattle auction. They’ve brought with them a special breed of cattle, Herefords, which they aim to import and breed with the Longhorns. Many of the locals seem resentful of this new breed of cattle. Suspecting foulplay, Martha hires the veteran trail boss Sam “Bulldog” Burnett to accompany them to Texas to deliver their prized bull, Vindicator. But Hilary has her own suspicions about Burnett and his motives for taking the job.

Taken as a whole, The Rare Breed is uneven. On the plus side, Sturgeon certainly has a distinctive voice, and once in a while he will catch you off guard with an ornate, poetic passage whose wording and cadence is simply beautiful. His best lines are better spoken aloud than silently read. This passage, for example, is structured more like poetry than prose, and its power lies in suggestive imagery rather than concrete details.

The passenger’s wilderness is ever home-ground to the helmsmen, and there was little talk while the women watched the quarrel of light and the victory of day over the stars, and the metamorphosis of black nothingness around and under them, to endless green with a sharp neat border of horizon and a feather-flecked roof of blue.

He also devotes a lot of attention to phonetic dialogue, which adds a lot to the characters and makes for witty banter.

Some of the drawbacks to the book are that it seems hastily written and poorly structured. Sturgeon can spend 7 pages on a tangent about Martha Evans riding sidesaddle, but yet gloss over significant plot details. The poetic phrasing that can be lovely to speak can, unfortunately, drag down a story, as well. Plot points, dialogue, and action tend to get lost in bloated paragraphs and overly complex syntax. More than once I couldn’t discern the subject of a sentence, or even figure out who the “he” or “she” in a scene were supposed to be.

Uncharacteristically of Gold Medal novels, the pacing of The Rare Breed is also rather slow. The opening cattle auction scene is nearly the entire first third of the book, and it isn’t until almost 2/3s of the way that we actually get going on the cattle trail. Sturgeon seems less interested in the story and its characters than he does the specific details of the Old West. He lovingly and exhaustively describes how to filter muddy water through a cheesecloth and the distinctions of a English sidesaddle, and he renders geography with both precision and lyricism. Yet Sturgeon fumbles with significant story details – the finale is especially clumsy, with the introduction of a crucial character just pages before the book ends. It makes for an anti-climatic conclusion.

The movie The Rare Breed is quite good, from what I remember (though I admit it has been about 10 years). Sturgeon’s tie-in might not be the apex of his writing career, but it makes an interesting footnote to his body of work.

Some quotes from the novel:

“No wonder they call this the land of opportunity. They’ll take anything that isn’t bolted down!”

“He drove the moon down while fatigue sat on his back like a gigantic rucksack with the devil perched on it, dropping one-ounce weights into it, one per second.”

“Maybe it’s mor’ls an’ maybe it’s just easier. Fella tells the truth all the time, he don’t have to remember what it was he said”

"Yellowleg" by A.S. Fleischman (Gold Medal, 1960)

The Civil War has been over for many years, and a prospective bank robbery has forged a bond between former enemies. There are the two Rebels – the anxious gunhand Billy and his older mentor Turk – and the Yankee, a mysterious man named Yellowleg who is short on words and quick on the draw. As they enter Gila City, it is clear the group has divergent motives: Turk has his eye on the money, while Billy is keen on the dance hall girl Kit, and Yellowleg has his sights on revenge for someone who nearly scalped him during the war.

Like the best of A.S. Fleischman’s Gold Medal novels (such as the South Seas thrillers Malay Woman and Danger in Paradise), Yellowleg’s driving plot quickly veers off the conventional path and goes in unexpected directions, repeatedly adding new twists to the story and its characters. What begins as a heist story morphs into a revenge quest, and Fleischman takes the narrative on yet another detour with Kit and her son, Mead. Such surprises keep the story fresh and engaging, but most importantly they come off as natural evolutions and never seem forced or contrived.

Fleischman takes a similar approach to his characters, putting distinctive spins on Western archetypes. Kit seems particularly modern. She’s a single mother who began working in a dance hall after her husband was killed during an Indian attack. Despite the lurid rumors spread by the townsfolk, Kit is not, and never was, a “parlor girl.” Strong and self-reliant, she never pities herself or expresses any shame about the life she was forced to take. And unlike “Mike,” the gun-toting female from W.R. Burnett’s Stretch Dawson, Kit doesn’t throw away her independence once a man forcefully takes her into his arms. It was refreshing to see a feminine character that couldn’t be won over by masculine strength or sexuality.

In 1961, the year after Yellowleg was published, Fleischman adapted his own book to the screen as The Deadly Companions. It was the first film by a young man who would go on to become a luminary in film history: Sam Peckinpah. Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith played the lead roles, and I thought it was a terrific adaptation that really captured the spirit of the book. I've posted the video below, or you can watch it for free on Archive.org.

As always, a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Maybe the trouble with revenge was the day you caught up with it.”

“Her beauty struck him as a fragile, hopeless thing; out of place and unexpected in a dried-up little New Mexico town. It reminded him of the bloom of mountain cactus which opened its petals for a brief display in the night and then withered and browned in the next day’s heat.”

“Their shadows traveled close underfoot, like timid reflections.”

“There was no pain, only the memory of it, and the fear of it, but it kept him from squeezing the trigger.”

“But a man needs something to live for, even if it’s just to kill another man.”

"The Tarnished Star" by Jack Martin (Black Horse Western, 2009)

With the recent release of Gary Dobbs’ ebook A Policeman’s Lot, I wanted to say a few words about his first novel, The Tarnished Star, a Black Horse Western published under the pseudonym Jack Martin. The rip-roaring Western adventure is an assured, confident debut. Followers of Dobbs’ blog The Tainted Archive are well aware of the British author’s deep knowledge of both the fictional literature and the actual history of the Wild West. The Tarnished Star is steeped in Western lore, but Dobbs’ voice is clearly his own. He shows that he knows how to write an original story that still respects the genre’s traditions.

The novel starts with an archetypal Western scenario—the sheriff who stands alone against the villains—and gives it a twist. What if Gary Cooper in High Noon stepped down and gave up? What would make a strong-willed sheriff give in to the bad guys? How would the town react? And how would the sheriff deal with the shame and humiliation of letting himself, and his people, down?

Those are some of the thought-provoking questions that drive The Tarnished Star. As the book opens, Sheriff Cole Masters has arrested Sam Bowden for killing a prostitute. Sam is the rotten son of a rich and powerful rancher named Clem Bowden, and Clem won’t stand for his son’s incarceration. When he and his henchmen show up at the jail armed and dangerous, Cole gives in and lets them take not only Sam, but also his badge.

But when Cole realizes the Bowdens are going to frame him for murder, he takes to the open range in an attempt to reach the stagecoach and talk to the Judge before he reaches town. With his name cleared, maybe Cole could finally bring law and order to the town of Squaw, and settle down with Jessie, the local schoolteacher. The only thing in his way, however, is the Bowdens, who will stop at nothing to prevent Cole from reaching the stage on time.

The book offers great Western action and atmosphere, as well as strong, compelling characters. By switching between different characters’ points of view, Dobbs sustains dramatic tension throughout while giving us insight into both the heroes and villains of the story. I especially liked the desert chase as Bowden’s men tracked Cole into the mountains and caves, which culminates in a classic shoot-out. It is a promising debut, and I’m looking forward to reading more of Dobbs’ books.

For more information on The Tarnished Star, you can revisit an interview I conducted with Dobbs when the book was released. The book is still available online through The Book Depository.

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes:

“Sam struck out with the back of his hand, slapping the old man across the jaw with a sound like fish guts hitting a sink.”

“For now the only emotion he needed was the seething anger in the pit of his stomach, for it would keep him fresh, help him remain focused on what had to be done.”

Interview with Gary Dobbs on "The Tarnished Star" (Robert Hale Ltd/Black Horse Westerns, 2009)

One of the most unique voices on the Web belongs to Gary Dobbs, who generously shares his extensive knowledge of The West on his blog The Tainted Archive and has published a number of short stories on the web on such sites as Beat to a Pulp, Thieves Jargon, and A Twist of Noir (1, 2, and 3). On June 30th, his debut novel, The Tarnished Star, will be published by Robert Hale Ltd/Black Horse Westerns under the name "Jack Martin." The story concerns Cole Masters, an honest sheriff who arrests the son of a wealthy family for murder, and soon finds that upholding the law isn’t as easy – or safe – it is seems. You can preorder the book from either The Book Depository or Amazon.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Gary about his upcoming novel, his passion for The West, as well as his Wild West Monday initiative.

Pulp Serenade: First, can you tell us something about The Tarnished Star? Briefly, what is the story, and where did you get the idea from?

Gary Dobbs: I've always loved the traditional western - the films of John Wayne, Gary Cooper, James Stewert and others of that ilk. And I also have a great love for writers like Louis L'amour, Max Brand, Elmer Kelton. I spent my teens reading westerns by George G. Gilman, a man who I think wrote westerns with the lean qualities of Chandler. So when I decided to write a western novel I think I channeled all this into my own work and with The Tarnished Star I think I've produced a western that could have come out of the Forties or Fifties but is modern in its pace and substance. It's about courage and the need to stand up and be counted and not expect some higher power to sort out life's problems. Hopefully it's everything a western readers needs for an enjoyable few hours between the covers.

PS: Why publish under the name “Jack Martin”?

GD: Well Jack Martin was my maternal grandfather and probably the greatest hero I have ever know. He gave me my love of the wild west or rather the mythical stories of the wild west. And these remain with me to this day - I love all sorts of fiction - horror, crime even science fantasy but whenever there's a western about I always gravitate to it. You can give me The Magnificent Seven over Star Wars any day of the week. And so by adopting the name of Jack Martin every western I write will be a tribute to the man who loomed large in my life and still does even if it has been nearly three decades since he passed away.

PS: How did you get connected with Robert Hale/Black Horse Westerns?

GD: I've always been a writer and published a number of stories and even a radio play but never a novel - although I'd written several over the years. And then when a friend of mine suggested I try a western I was initially dubious. Does anyone read westerns these days? Does anyone publish them? Some research led me to Robert Hale and I checked out several titles from the library. My first attempt for them came flying back and Tarnished Star was snapped up and I was delighted.

PS: When did you first become so interested in the Western genre, and what about it continues to appeal and fascinate you today?

GD: As I say my initial fascination was inherited from my grandfather. But it's a wonderful and versatile genre that doesn't deserve the bad press its gotten these last few years. Sure it often resorts to cliche but then what genre doesn't in some form or other? There's a certain freedom with the western and it allows the writer to play with themes and ideas that are unique to the genre. But I think that at the root of all westerns there is a morality that we have lost in modern life and that it resonates with readers even if they don't always realise it.

PS: The unique history and mythology of “The West” has continued to captivate both readers and writers for well over a century now. Do you have any thoughts on why it is so everlasting, and what it can offer to contemporary readers of the 21st century?

GD: A very good question. The West was being mythologiesed even while it was happening but beneath all this there is the basic concept of good and evil. The western also stands up for the little man - often a lone rancher going up against land hungry corporations or a man trying to build a life for himself and his family without interference from the outside world. It's all about braving whatever life can throw at you and enduring because of it. These themes are universal and timeless and have just as much relevance today as they ever had.

PS: On your blog, The Tainted Archive, you write a lot about Western history. Where do you do your research, and what role did it play in writing The Tarnished Star?

GD: I wouldn't call it research since it's always been a massive interest with me. I have a large library of western history and of course I buy anything new that I can find - The monthly magazine Wild West from the Weider History Group keeps me up with current developments with a western connection. I've probably got an encyclopedic knowledge of western lore and although I may have to check up on something from time to time I think I'm carrying more than is healthy around within my head. I; I'm hoping to visit America next year, touring the present day West and I think that maybe one day I'd like relocate and become a citizen. I often joke to friends that my interest comes from the fact that I was Calamity Jane in a previous life.

PS: As someone who writes both Western and Noir fiction, do you see any similarities between the two genres?

GD: Very much so - what is Chandler's lone detective wandering the mean streets, if not a modern version of the sole cowboy riding the range? In some ways the structure of noir and westerns are very similar. It's usually someone going up against sinister and powerful odds with only their own ingenuity and courage to protect themselves.

PS: In addition to being a writer, you are also an actor and a cab driver. Have these other professions aided your writing in any way?

GD: Cabbing helps pay the bills - but writing and acting are two side of the same coin. Both enable me to live in an imaginary world and I've never happier than creating something, bringing something into being. Ideally it would be great to write a classic western that brings the genre back to the forefront and then take a part in a movie version which would be directed by the wonderful Clint Eastwood and starring someone like a middle period John Wayne.

PS: Is this the first novel you’ve tried writing? If so, what was it like making the transition from short stories to this longer format?

GD: No my first novel I wrote in longhand when I was about 12 or 13. It was called The Ultimate Spy and was a cross between TV's The Six Million Dollar Man and a character from the 2000AD comic called M.A.C.H 1 - which I think stood for man activated by computer hyperpuncture or something like that. I wish I still had that to read now. I've written several novels in the past and one, Smith's Way which was a crime thriller featuring The Queen, Prince Charles and a plot to liberate the Royal Corgi's almost saw print and was part dramatised on BBC Radio Wales. But The Tarnished Star is my first published novel.

On the subject of short stories - I find the small form harder than novels since you've got to make every word count.

PS: Wild West Monday the Third is approaching – would you care to say anything about your initiative? And are there any books you can recommend as starters for those readers not familiar with the Western genre?

GD: I just think it's a shame how neglected the genre has become of late and with the internet and its possibilities of worldwide interaction between fans I think we can bring it back into favour. I mean go to any bookshop and most books are like 500 pages plus - now not every story needs that amount of words. Books have become too much like product, indistinguishable from groceries. I think the story should dictate the type and length of book and not some misguided idea that all books must be of a uniform size.

PS: Who are your biggest literary influences, and what about them has most influenced your work?

GD: I tend to gravitate towards entertaining writers - I'm not worried about literature for literatures sake. Fuck trying to be clever just give me a good story. Ian Fleming is a massive influence because his writing creates a chemical rush in the brain which makes the reader hurl through the pages. British western writer George Gilman is also another great influence because his books are perfect in the sense of being entertaining books and the character he writes about "Edge" is like "The Man with No-Name" taken to the extreme. I've read a lot of Stephen King, Clive Barker, Dean Koontz. Mickey Spillane, Terry Pratchett in my time and they all have one thing in common - Entertainment.

In my own writing if I can grab the reader the way all these guys do then I'll be a happy man. I guess with my westerns I like to be something of a cross between Louis L'amour and George Gilman with a little Ian Fleming thrown in there.

PS: What’s next for you? Any future projects that you can divulge?

GD: I'm working on several projects at the same time - an historical crime, a comic fantasy and the second Arkansas Smith adventure - the first Arkansas Smith will be out in March 2010 from Robert Hale LTD. I'm starting work on another series of Larkrise to Candleford in June and I think we'll be filming through to Jan 2010 so I've plenty on my plate. I love the fact that George Gilman, the author I used to read while skipping school loves Larkrise and never misses an episode, that's kind of surreal. And of course The Archive will not be neglected no matter what else I am doing.