Savage Breed

by Joseph Chadwick

Vintage paperback original; western novel.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

Reviews

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

My version is published by Gold Medal in February 1959. This is a good one about a small group of people cornered by the Dog Soldiers of the Cheyennes who are escaping from a forced camp. The "Savage Breed" in the title refers not to the Native Americans, but rather to the trapped whites who had been participating in a buffalo hunt before they find themselves trapped by the Cheyennes who want their horses. Tom Wyatt is the hunt's guide. Members of the hunt include Wyatt's partner, a U.S. senator and his mistress, a couple of shady hired hands with larceny on their minds, a swindler and his wife, and a blowhard marshal and gambler. Chadwick ratchets up the tension in the story as the characters turn on each other under mounting pressure by the Cheyennes to give up their horses. Bigotry and racism is put under the spotlight as Tom Wyatt tries to keep everyone under his leadership from killing each other. Needless to say, bullets fly and people die. It's another cheap old used paperback western that was much better than you'd think just seeing it up on a dusty shelf of used books.