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The Hell Bent Kid
Hailed by the Western Writers of America as one of the top twenty-five Westerns ever The harrowing story of an innocent young man pursued across west Texas by a relentless posse A crack shot more skilled with a rifle than are men twice his age, eighteen-year-old Tot Lohman has no intention of using his genius for evil. But when a fight erupts at a schoolhouse dance, Lohman is forced to defend himself, and a young rancher named Shorty Boyd winds up dead. The Boyds are numerous, powerful, and vicious, and they want revenge. With no one else to turn to, Lohman sets out across canyon country to reunite with his ailing father in New Mexico Territory. The journey will be long, hot, and perilous, and to survive it, this mild-mannered boy must become the cold-blooded killer he never wanted to be. Based on real events, The Hell Bent Kid is a tale of pursuit as stark and mesmerizing as the Southwestern landscape in which it is set. Unrelenting from first page to last, it ranks alongside The Ox-Bow Incident, True Grit, and The Searchers as one of the most unique and artful stories of the West ever told. In 1958 it was adapted into the film From Hell to Texas, directed by the famed Henry Hathaway and starring Don Murray, Diane Varsi, Chill Wills, and Dennis Hopper.
161 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1957
114 people are currently reading
501 people want to read
About the author
Charles O. Locke
8 books1 followerCharles O. Locke was an American author best known for his novels of the West. The scion of a newspaper family, he was born in Tiffin, Ohio, and graduated from Yale University. Locke began his career as a reporter at the Toledo Blade and before long moved to New York City, where he wrote for a number of newspapers, including the New York Post and the New York World-Telegram. Like many, he fell in love not only with the city but with its huge public library and access to the world of theater. He composed songs and libretti for stage shows, wrote plays for radio programs, and joined a local theater group, for which he wrote, directed, and performed, sometimes in his own plays. He was also a writer for such well-known figures of the 1930s as Fred Allen and Charles Winninger. During World War II, he worked for the Office of War Information, and returned to publicity work in the late 1940s.
Locke published his first novel, A Shadow of Our Own, in 1951, following it with his breakout success, The Hell Bent Kid, in 1957. The story of a young man in the 1880s who is unjustly pursued across the state of Texas by relentless enemies, this mesmerizing tale was heralded by the Western Writers of America as one of the top twenty-five Western novels of all time. 20th Century Fox adapted the book into a feature film, From Hell to Texas, in 1958.
The Southwest continued to fascinate Locke, and it provided the backdrop to two more, equally powerful novels, also set in the nineteenth century: Amelia Rankin (1959) and The Taste of Infamy: The Adventure of John Killane (1960).
Locke published his first novel, A Shadow of Our Own, in 1951, following it with his breakout success, The Hell Bent Kid, in 1957. The story of a young man in the 1880s who is unjustly pursued across the state of Texas by relentless enemies, this mesmerizing tale was heralded by the Western Writers of America as one of the top twenty-five Western novels of all time. 20th Century Fox adapted the book into a feature film, From Hell to Texas, in 1958.
The Southwest continued to fascinate Locke, and it provided the backdrop to two more, equally powerful novels, also set in the nineteenth century: Amelia Rankin (1959) and The Taste of Infamy: The Adventure of John Killane (1960).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
February 7, 2020
A short, quick and good western. Supposed to be one of the Top 25 Westerns ever written. Might be, I have never kept such a count but with the genre out of favor it might well deserve that ranking. Story is about an 18-year old boy who shot a man in self defense and is being hounded by that persons wealthy family all through Texas and New Mexico as he travels to find his father who used to be a lawman. Young man exhibits ingenuity, courage and maturity beyond his year. Has many scrapes with these men who are after him, and he reluctantly kills more. The ending is well done and yet also necessary, as any other ending would make no sense. Just a very good book that shows the nature of man, and how many lives are needlessly ruined in the escapade of revenge.
December 3, 2015
I received an ARC copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I don’t read very many westerns but the advance review that classified The Hell Bent Kid as one of the top 25 westerns ever written was just too tempting for me. It clearly was not hype. This novel is every bit as good as its billing. Also, just a little praise where praise is due—the fact that this book was published by Open Road was another point in its favor. In my experience, Open Road is a publisher that I count on for consistently high quality works of any genre, from classics to noir and now I can add westerns to that list. Just take a look at their list of titles and award winning authors and you will most likely agree.
It is interesting that I was reading this novel at the same time that my daughter was reading Conrad’s Heart of Darkness because they explore similar themes. Conrad’s novella argues for the inevitable corruption of man in the face of evil and the overwhelming power of the uncaring natural world. Tot, the protagonist The Hell Bent Kid, faces the desert much as Kurtz does the jungle. Equally deadly, both natural elements strip man of all the trappings, comforts and life-saving resources of civilization. While Kurtz was confronted, and ultimately corrupted by his interaction with an amoral and, to our view, evil primitive society, Tot faces the constant and deadly pursuit of “civilized” men who mean to kill him to avenge a life that he took in self defense. The men who follow him do not represent the law, but instead men of wealth and power who, at that time, were the actual face of civilized society when battles to the death were seen as high entertainment. But Tot is no Kurtz. As we follow him to his ultimate and natural, although still surprising, resolution of this conflict we see a man, a boy really, who is above both the evils bred in civilized society as well as the natural world—both of which sought to destroy him.
This book will clearly have a slot on my 2015 favorites list and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys not only westerns, but stories told in a sparse Hemingway style—which also employ the “iceberg” analogy of a simple story with most of the real meaning and value of the tale below the surface.
Compelling, tense, and beautifully written.
Great book. 5 stars. Masterpiece is not too strong a word.
I don’t read very many westerns but the advance review that classified The Hell Bent Kid as one of the top 25 westerns ever written was just too tempting for me. It clearly was not hype. This novel is every bit as good as its billing. Also, just a little praise where praise is due—the fact that this book was published by Open Road was another point in its favor. In my experience, Open Road is a publisher that I count on for consistently high quality works of any genre, from classics to noir and now I can add westerns to that list. Just take a look at their list of titles and award winning authors and you will most likely agree.
It is interesting that I was reading this novel at the same time that my daughter was reading Conrad’s Heart of Darkness because they explore similar themes. Conrad’s novella argues for the inevitable corruption of man in the face of evil and the overwhelming power of the uncaring natural world. Tot, the protagonist The Hell Bent Kid, faces the desert much as Kurtz does the jungle. Equally deadly, both natural elements strip man of all the trappings, comforts and life-saving resources of civilization. While Kurtz was confronted, and ultimately corrupted by his interaction with an amoral and, to our view, evil primitive society, Tot faces the constant and deadly pursuit of “civilized” men who mean to kill him to avenge a life that he took in self defense. The men who follow him do not represent the law, but instead men of wealth and power who, at that time, were the actual face of civilized society when battles to the death were seen as high entertainment. But Tot is no Kurtz. As we follow him to his ultimate and natural, although still surprising, resolution of this conflict we see a man, a boy really, who is above both the evils bred in civilized society as well as the natural world—both of which sought to destroy him.
This book will clearly have a slot on my 2015 favorites list and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys not only westerns, but stories told in a sparse Hemingway style—which also employ the “iceberg” analogy of a simple story with most of the real meaning and value of the tale below the surface.
Compelling, tense, and beautifully written.
Great book. 5 stars. Masterpiece is not too strong a word.
January 6, 2017
Dan Bronson (Confessions of a Hollywood Nobody) gave me an ancient, yellow-paged, mass-market paperback entitled The Hell Bent Kid, by Charles O. Locke, published back in the fifties, with the kind of over-the-top cover illustration one might expect to see on a bad Louis L’Amour. Both the cover and the title gave me pause.
The cover was painted by illustrator George Gross, who clearly took his inspiration from Hollywood’s ideas of cowboys and cowboying, not from anything approaching reality. That’s hardly surprising, considering that George Gross was the Brooklyn-born son of an illustrator, who followed in his father’s footsteps, attending the Pratt Art Institute, and then living and working as an illustrator in New York all his life, and it probably wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference to anyone likely to buy the book, but it got me off to a bad start.
Then there’s the title.
Dan has a theory that writers frequently choose the worst possible titles for their novels. He points to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s revered and classic novel Trimalchio in West Egg as an example. I’m sure you’ve read it. If in fact you do remember the name Trimalchio at all, it’s from The Satyricon, and if you happen to be one of the very few who have ever actually read that, you will agree that it might—might—possibly have been an appropriate choice of title. Fortunately, Fitzgerald’s editor, the great Maxwell Perkins, was able to prevail upon his client and the book has fared reasonably well throughout the years under the much better title The Great Gatsby. If only Maxwell Perkins had been Charles O. Locke’s editor.
Who?
Good question. Who the hell was Charles O. Locke? In the Age of the Internet it’s supposed to be possible to find out just about anything about anybody, but not Charles O. Locke. The sum of the man’s life (that I have been able to find) is that he was born into a well-to-do newspaper family in Ohio, graduated from Yale, worked as a journalist, a publicist, a copy writer for an advertising agency, and as a lyricist for some Broadway musicals before turning his hand to Western novels. That’s about it—not much for a man who lived to be eighty-one and is credited with (among accolades for his other novels) a Western that is considered one of the best of all time, frequently mentioned in the same breath as such classics as The Ox-Bow Incident and The Big Sky. That’s heady company, and it was only a reference to those books on the cover, and the fact that I trust Dan’s literary judgment, that kept me from sticking the book up on a high and obscure shelf in my library. I’m glad I didn’t.
Apart from the appalling and off-putting title, The Hell Bent Kid (it should have a hyphen in there, but it doesn’t) is an excellent and exceptionally well-written novel—not just an excellent and well-written Western novel, but novel, period. Mr. Locke’s style reminds me of Hemingway at his very best, meaning sparse, taut, unemotional, where much lies beneath the bare-bones surface, a style that I suspect is the result of both men having been newspaper reporters. All that sparseness creates a story that rushes forward with the speed and momentum of a galloping horse, and yet, in Locke’s capable hands, without ever sacrificing character development or a vivid sense of place.
And it is a story that is both compelling and deceptively intelligent. On the surface, it is nothing more than a variant retelling of the classic of the innocent man fighting to clear his name, or escape the forces of evil, or simply to stay alive against overwhelming odds, the kind of story you can find in any paperback Western with white or yellowed pages. Yet Locke presents an idealistic young hero fighting not just the evil of the men who wish to kill him, or the equally deadly and impersonal dangers of the desert he must travel through, but also confronting the violent nature of man himself as it rises within him. The kid knows what he must do to stay alive, knows too what the almost certain outcome will be, and chooses to confront both dangers on his own terms.
The result is an archetypical, stock Western character elevated into a Christ figure, a man willing to sacrifice himself for a fundamental belief in essentially Christian values. Don’t misunderstand: this is not a “Christian novel;” it is not preachy; it is not a moralizing sermon in novel form; it is not even (I suspect) a novel with a conscious theme. Rather, it is a damned fine, fast-paced novel, set in the American West, using typically Western cowboy themes and images and characters and plot, yet (I’m guessing here) where the author’s moral compass shines through and makes it something more than the same story might have been in lesser hands.
Clearly, Charles O. Locke was neither a horseman nor a shooter; there are a few minor errors having to do with horse handling and firearms, but they are so minor and so few that only diehard fanatics like me will ever catch them. If you liked The Oxbow Incident, give yourself a treat and try to find a copy of The Hell Bent Kid. Good luck finding an affordable copy, though. It is one of those books that command the kinds of prices that once could buy you a good used pickup. We can only hope that some publisher will re-release it.
The cover was painted by illustrator George Gross, who clearly took his inspiration from Hollywood’s ideas of cowboys and cowboying, not from anything approaching reality. That’s hardly surprising, considering that George Gross was the Brooklyn-born son of an illustrator, who followed in his father’s footsteps, attending the Pratt Art Institute, and then living and working as an illustrator in New York all his life, and it probably wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference to anyone likely to buy the book, but it got me off to a bad start.
Then there’s the title.
Dan has a theory that writers frequently choose the worst possible titles for their novels. He points to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s revered and classic novel Trimalchio in West Egg as an example. I’m sure you’ve read it. If in fact you do remember the name Trimalchio at all, it’s from The Satyricon, and if you happen to be one of the very few who have ever actually read that, you will agree that it might—might—possibly have been an appropriate choice of title. Fortunately, Fitzgerald’s editor, the great Maxwell Perkins, was able to prevail upon his client and the book has fared reasonably well throughout the years under the much better title The Great Gatsby. If only Maxwell Perkins had been Charles O. Locke’s editor.
Who?
Good question. Who the hell was Charles O. Locke? In the Age of the Internet it’s supposed to be possible to find out just about anything about anybody, but not Charles O. Locke. The sum of the man’s life (that I have been able to find) is that he was born into a well-to-do newspaper family in Ohio, graduated from Yale, worked as a journalist, a publicist, a copy writer for an advertising agency, and as a lyricist for some Broadway musicals before turning his hand to Western novels. That’s about it—not much for a man who lived to be eighty-one and is credited with (among accolades for his other novels) a Western that is considered one of the best of all time, frequently mentioned in the same breath as such classics as The Ox-Bow Incident and The Big Sky. That’s heady company, and it was only a reference to those books on the cover, and the fact that I trust Dan’s literary judgment, that kept me from sticking the book up on a high and obscure shelf in my library. I’m glad I didn’t.
Apart from the appalling and off-putting title, The Hell Bent Kid (it should have a hyphen in there, but it doesn’t) is an excellent and exceptionally well-written novel—not just an excellent and well-written Western novel, but novel, period. Mr. Locke’s style reminds me of Hemingway at his very best, meaning sparse, taut, unemotional, where much lies beneath the bare-bones surface, a style that I suspect is the result of both men having been newspaper reporters. All that sparseness creates a story that rushes forward with the speed and momentum of a galloping horse, and yet, in Locke’s capable hands, without ever sacrificing character development or a vivid sense of place.
And it is a story that is both compelling and deceptively intelligent. On the surface, it is nothing more than a variant retelling of the classic of the innocent man fighting to clear his name, or escape the forces of evil, or simply to stay alive against overwhelming odds, the kind of story you can find in any paperback Western with white or yellowed pages. Yet Locke presents an idealistic young hero fighting not just the evil of the men who wish to kill him, or the equally deadly and impersonal dangers of the desert he must travel through, but also confronting the violent nature of man himself as it rises within him. The kid knows what he must do to stay alive, knows too what the almost certain outcome will be, and chooses to confront both dangers on his own terms.
The result is an archetypical, stock Western character elevated into a Christ figure, a man willing to sacrifice himself for a fundamental belief in essentially Christian values. Don’t misunderstand: this is not a “Christian novel;” it is not preachy; it is not a moralizing sermon in novel form; it is not even (I suspect) a novel with a conscious theme. Rather, it is a damned fine, fast-paced novel, set in the American West, using typically Western cowboy themes and images and characters and plot, yet (I’m guessing here) where the author’s moral compass shines through and makes it something more than the same story might have been in lesser hands.
Clearly, Charles O. Locke was neither a horseman nor a shooter; there are a few minor errors having to do with horse handling and firearms, but they are so minor and so few that only diehard fanatics like me will ever catch them. If you liked The Oxbow Incident, give yourself a treat and try to find a copy of The Hell Bent Kid. Good luck finding an affordable copy, though. It is one of those books that command the kinds of prices that once could buy you a good used pickup. We can only hope that some publisher will re-release it.
July 5, 2023
After being forced to defend himself at a dance, Tot Lohman winds up killing Shorty Boyd, the son of a powerful rancher. Tot decides it’s best to leave the ranch where he’s working and then soon finds that he made the right decision as the Boyd family is out for vengeance.
The writing was straightforward but didn’t grab me. I enjoyed parts of this book but I thought some sections were slow. It got more interesting towards the end which felt very noir.
The writing was straightforward but didn’t grab me. I enjoyed parts of this book but I thought some sections were slow. It got more interesting towards the end which felt very noir.
September 16, 2015
Well-written if somewhat stark western. It's the story of a young man of considerable integrity who finds himself, through no fault of his own, on the wrong side of the powers in the area--not the law, mind you--and how he deals with that situation. As I've found in many of the westerns I've read, the book combines gritty pragmatism and philosophy in an appealing way. Recommended for anybody who likes westerns!
Note: I received a free copy of this from the publisher via NetGalley.
Note: I received a free copy of this from the publisher via NetGalley.
February 4, 2018
I enjoy a well-written Western and feel that it is an underrated and all too often dismissed genre, so I was pleased to discover this re-issue on NetGalley of The Hell Bent Kid, considered one of the best twenty five Western novels of all time. I can see why it is highly regarded, as it’s a “good yarn” but it’s not the sort of Western I like, concentrating too much as it does on action rather than character. It tells the story of young Tot Lohman who is unrelentingly pursued by the brothers of a man he has inadvertently killed. As he flees across the arid and dangerous New Mexico territory he has all the adventures you might expect from the genre, but I found these tedious after a while, and not always convincing. So for me this was just middling sort of Western tale and not one of the best.
August 14, 2015
I've never been much for westerns, but this is really just barely on the fringes of the Vinn diagram that includes westerns and an adventure sub-genre of the hunted. Really, only Rogue Male approached the stiffing pressure of the hunt for me. And while Rogue Male used the setting or an underground hiding place and isolation to intensify the feeling of dread, this story achieves it in the wide open range and with quite a few relationships developed in the course of the story.
The kid is doomed and you know it. Everyone knows it. And you still invest so much in him and hold out hope that he'll make it to his father. Honestly just a great piece of storytelling.
The kid is doomed and you know it. Everyone knows it. And you still invest so much in him and hold out hope that he'll make it to his father. Honestly just a great piece of storytelling.
September 23, 2015
I must admit, open and first, that I nearly quit Charles O. Locke's THE HELL BENT KID at just five percent read. It was a little startling to see Tot, the protagonist of the story, have his horse shot in the desert and, because it was desert and water was scarce, drain blood from the horse to drink as he kept walking to Socorro. Suffice it to say, horse blood is not a good replacement for water and Tot quickly abandoned the idea.
Tot did not abandon his quest to leave Texas for New Mexico in the hopes of saving his father from something vaguely defined as a crooked English cattle rancher. I think.
Everybody the teenaged Tot meets along the way all but begs him to give up his father for lost and go back to the safety of the Texas ranch were he worked. Not everybody, I suppose. The Boyds try to kill him because he took credit for killing a Boyd, though he did not. I think.
Tot listens to no one. He can't even be swayed by pretty girls willing to run away to Wyoming with him.
In that, slightly irritating, sense, Tot is what a reader probably expected and enjoyed when this book was originally published in 1957 and the cowboy western culture what at it's most romantic. So I read Tot's story, a fiction story, trying to put myself in the mindset of the original readers. And that's why I liked it a lot, despite the horse blood scene and the frustration I felt with Tot's never doing the smart thing.
I probably won't read it again, but it's worth a read so I won't say how Tot, Tot's father, and all the people who tried their damnedest to keep them apart fare in the end.
I received a copy of THE HELL BENT KID through NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media in exchange for an honest review.
Tot did not abandon his quest to leave Texas for New Mexico in the hopes of saving his father from something vaguely defined as a crooked English cattle rancher. I think.
Everybody the teenaged Tot meets along the way all but begs him to give up his father for lost and go back to the safety of the Texas ranch were he worked. Not everybody, I suppose. The Boyds try to kill him because he took credit for killing a Boyd, though he did not. I think.
Tot listens to no one. He can't even be swayed by pretty girls willing to run away to Wyoming with him.
In that, slightly irritating, sense, Tot is what a reader probably expected and enjoyed when this book was originally published in 1957 and the cowboy western culture what at it's most romantic. So I read Tot's story, a fiction story, trying to put myself in the mindset of the original readers. And that's why I liked it a lot, despite the horse blood scene and the frustration I felt with Tot's never doing the smart thing.
I probably won't read it again, but it's worth a read so I won't say how Tot, Tot's father, and all the people who tried their damnedest to keep them apart fare in the end.
I received a copy of THE HELL BENT KID through NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media in exchange for an honest review.
September 16, 2017
Well, I prefer Max Brand. This is the rough and nasty version, with someone killed or shot or nursing his wound or stabbed in every short chapter. Some of the text is letters and I see very little constructive action; as the title suggests, it goes downhill fast.
I prefer tales like La Grulla and West to The Black Hills, which are modern retellings of a vanished era, much better quality writing. Of course, some readers will like the older books.
I was sent an ARC. This is an unbiased review.
I prefer tales like La Grulla and West to The Black Hills, which are modern retellings of a vanished era, much better quality writing. Of course, some readers will like the older books.
I was sent an ARC. This is an unbiased review.
February 14, 2017
This is an outstanding story in the western tradition of man vs nature and man vs lawless man in the unsettled west. Eighteen year old Tot Lohman kills a man in self defense. Tot is perfect with a rifle, but he despises killing. He has to defend himself on a long and perilous desert journey chased by the relatives of the man he killed. Poignant and chilling.
October 12, 2020
I reminder of just how profound (yes profound) the western can be. The hell bent kid is an innocent that has everything taken from him but refuses to back down. He loses his innocence in the process, and wonders whether life is worth living as a result. That is what makes it profound.
September 1, 2015
An extraordinary book. A western of both thought and action and mostly morality.
March 24, 2018
Ein angenehm zu lesender Vertreter des Genres, aber ich werde allmählich zu alt für den Scheiß. Männliche Männer tun männliche Männerdinge (töten, Zähne zusammenbeißen, Sachen mit Klapperschlangen) und begegnen dabei anderen männlichen Männern sowie einigen yellow-bellied cowards. Irgendwann ist auch mal gut.
May 5, 2019
3.5 Stars
December 29, 2022
Quick review (12/28/22).
5 stars.
A damn good western.
5 stars.
A damn good western.
July 10, 2015
Reissued in July 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media/Open Road Media.
Some of the fondest memories I have of my grandfather are of him sitting on the front porch, in "his" rocker, reading a paperback Western. Always a Western, no other book would do for him. I asked him once if I could read it when he finished and he told me it was much too violent for a girl to read. That was way back in the 1950s. Once I discovered the genre for myself I was absolutely fascinated by it and have read many novels through the years by both famous authors and those who didn't make it to fame with their stories of the old American West. This novel by Charles O. Locke is truly special.
Written by Locke in 1957 this is the story of the lawless days when the peacekeepers were pretty much whoever had the strongest personality and the money to hire the most guns. This part of Texas was run by the Boyd family in the 1880s and when Tot Lohman came up against them there was no real law enforcement to settle the question of how Shorty Boyd really died. The Boyd family version is what was accepted as truth so they began to hunt down Lohman to settle the score. No matter how Lohman tried to avoid a confrontation, it was going to happen. Told from the viewpoint of Tot and the men who befriended him, there is a stark simplicity to the narrative which makes the injustice of the situation stand out much more than prolific prose ever could.
This is a short novel, around 112 pages, as most of the old novels from this genre seemed to be. Length isn't what mattered here, the personality of Tot Lohman and the circumstances he found himself in are what kept me fascinated from first page to last. This is one any reader who enjoys the classic western novel needs to read. It's a real gem.
I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley.
Some of the fondest memories I have of my grandfather are of him sitting on the front porch, in "his" rocker, reading a paperback Western. Always a Western, no other book would do for him. I asked him once if I could read it when he finished and he told me it was much too violent for a girl to read. That was way back in the 1950s. Once I discovered the genre for myself I was absolutely fascinated by it and have read many novels through the years by both famous authors and those who didn't make it to fame with their stories of the old American West. This novel by Charles O. Locke is truly special.
Written by Locke in 1957 this is the story of the lawless days when the peacekeepers were pretty much whoever had the strongest personality and the money to hire the most guns. This part of Texas was run by the Boyd family in the 1880s and when Tot Lohman came up against them there was no real law enforcement to settle the question of how Shorty Boyd really died. The Boyd family version is what was accepted as truth so they began to hunt down Lohman to settle the score. No matter how Lohman tried to avoid a confrontation, it was going to happen. Told from the viewpoint of Tot and the men who befriended him, there is a stark simplicity to the narrative which makes the injustice of the situation stand out much more than prolific prose ever could.
This is a short novel, around 112 pages, as most of the old novels from this genre seemed to be. Length isn't what mattered here, the personality of Tot Lohman and the circumstances he found himself in are what kept me fascinated from first page to last. This is one any reader who enjoys the classic western novel needs to read. It's a real gem.
I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley.
November 24, 2015
A good western novel is always in demand. The Hell Bent Kid has been classified as one of the top 25 westerns of all time! And I can clearly see why. The protaganist is named Tot who in defense of himself ends up killing a member of a wealthy, notorious family. He must flee for his life as the men of this family vow revenge and pursue him. In his flight he faces numerous adversities, serious circumstances where his life is in danger. Tot is a character with a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. Through every conflict, luck and wisdom help him survive.
The story unfolds through Tot in first person narrative and later in documents, letters, and statements. The author does a stellar job of bringing the harsh west to life. His writing is succinct and to the point, and the novel is a quick read with never a dull moment. Plenty of action filled scenes and fascinating, well-developed, credible characters line the pages. The ending is fabulous! One of my favourite westerns! Go and read it!
Thank you to the author and publisher. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The story unfolds through Tot in first person narrative and later in documents, letters, and statements. The author does a stellar job of bringing the harsh west to life. His writing is succinct and to the point, and the novel is a quick read with never a dull moment. Plenty of action filled scenes and fascinating, well-developed, credible characters line the pages. The ending is fabulous! One of my favourite westerns! Go and read it!
Thank you to the author and publisher. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
December 7, 2017
This book is a reissue and I must say I had never read this author before, but I really liked this book. If you like westerns I think you would like it as well. The main part of the story without giving away to many details. Is a young man being chased across Texas, and into the dessert by gun hands working for a ranch owner who believes that he killed one of his sons. The Rancher though goes after his family besides the young man. He knows so many people that there are only a few that want to help the boy and they do so without any trouble from the rancher. This all sets up for a show down and when you come to the end you wonder who if anyone really is a winner. A well-written story and done so in a way that the story just continues from page to page and the characters are well thought out as well. A really good book. I got this book from NetGalley.com Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com
February 20, 2018
A Good Tight Western
A very good story with man good characters. The background is compelling and very interesting. The ending left me a little cold, but it was in keeping with the moral of the story.
A very good story with man good characters. The background is compelling and very interesting. The ending left me a little cold, but it was in keeping with the moral of the story.
July 17, 2018
I almost never give anything 5 stars, and when I do it's generally for a classic. Which this is. You may never have read a true genre Western novella, which this also is. And realistically, I don't figure any of you will actually pick this up and purchase & read it. But I can't just let this excellent piece of genre writing sink beneath the waves without acknowledging the harsh and painful beauty of its landscapes and the unadorned simplicity of the style and the characters themselves - before the heartbreaking, inescapable logic and unapologetic pathos of their fates.
This is a style of writing that has all but disappeared now, 50 years on. Some people might dislike that very aspect, the antique nature of it all and I don't fault then for that. Myature, and this one work, at least, worth mentioning.
This is a style of writing that has all but disappeared now, 50 years on. Some people might dislike that very aspect, the antique nature of it all and I don't fault then for that. Myature, and this one work, at least, worth mentioning.
July 26, 2015
*received from NetGalley*
Tot Lohman killed a Boyd in self-defense, and now the Boyd family is out for revenge, chasing Tot across Texas. This is Tot's painstaking accounting of his long ride, the people he meets along the way, the constant stream of Boyds or men hired by the Boyds to hunt him down. At times it was quite mesmerizing, but those times were outnumbered by the times it wasn't. Since the majority of the story is from Tot's POV, we don't get to know any of the characters. And since Tot is relating the events more like a log of this happened and then this happened, and not like an actual journal of his thoughts and feelings, we don't really get to know him either. It made for a slow read that slogged along at times, but did lead up to an exciting and climatic ending.
Tot Lohman killed a Boyd in self-defense, and now the Boyd family is out for revenge, chasing Tot across Texas. This is Tot's painstaking accounting of his long ride, the people he meets along the way, the constant stream of Boyds or men hired by the Boyds to hunt him down. At times it was quite mesmerizing, but those times were outnumbered by the times it wasn't. Since the majority of the story is from Tot's POV, we don't get to know any of the characters. And since Tot is relating the events more like a log of this happened and then this happened, and not like an actual journal of his thoughts and feelings, we don't really get to know him either. It made for a slow read that slogged along at times, but did lead up to an exciting and climatic ending.
June 30, 2015
On the run from vengeful family members for shooting in shooting and killing in self defense, Tot Lohman relates his tale through a roughly kept journal and we find out more from letters as well, all in possession of one of his friends.
This western has bouts of suspense and periods of quiet as we begin to understand Tot, raised by his Quaker mother in the immorality of killing and torn between his mother’s teachings and his own survival.
Reading like an historical document, more than just another novel, we begin to see that essential humanity in the grittiness of the lawless old West.
This western has bouts of suspense and periods of quiet as we begin to understand Tot, raised by his Quaker mother in the immorality of killing and torn between his mother’s teachings and his own survival.
Reading like an historical document, more than just another novel, we begin to see that essential humanity in the grittiness of the lawless old West.
August 8, 2015
This book was exciting with lots of action as "Tot" (Tate Lohman) leaves Texas for Socorro, New Mexico, to be with his father. The Boyds are on the hunt for him for killing Shorty Boyd and he runs smack dab into them and narrowly escapes two or three times. Tot finds his father dead and a brother, Harley, alive, who he hasn't seen for a long time. He and Harley part again and Tot decides to return to Texas, but stops in Santa Clara at the Amos Bradley ranch. He falls for the daughter, Juanita, but the Boyds are on his tail and he leaves. I won't reveal the ending that completes this great book because I don't want to ruin it for the readers. Definitely five-star.
October 12, 2021
4/5
SUPER SOLID.
Most of the problems I had with HONDO are basically absent here.
All the description is told from the POV of the eponymous Kid in his Wild West vernacular. Many instances of survival in the desert. Many descriptions of grease, a crucial substance.
There's a sort of pessimism about violence and justice in this book that makes it feel like a proto-Cormac McCarthy novel. The cat and mouse story at the heart of THE HELL BENT KID is very reminiscent of McCarthy in particular.
Definitely recommend if you're a fan of Westerns.
SUPER SOLID.
Most of the problems I had with HONDO are basically absent here.
All the description is told from the POV of the eponymous Kid in his Wild West vernacular. Many instances of survival in the desert. Many descriptions of grease, a crucial substance.
There's a sort of pessimism about violence and justice in this book that makes it feel like a proto-Cormac McCarthy novel. The cat and mouse story at the heart of THE HELL BENT KID is very reminiscent of McCarthy in particular.
Definitely recommend if you're a fan of Westerns.
April 4, 2018
I struggled to read this book. I used to love western's when I was young, and I was looking forward to reading what is considered one of the classic westerns. But I just could not get into it. The characters and story line are both superficial. There is simply no depth to the book.
Maybe it is just me and I am over western's but it didn't work for me.
Note: I had a free review copy from NegGallery.
Maybe it is just me and I am over western's but it didn't work for me.
Note: I had a free review copy from NegGallery.
November 20, 2022
Listed among the Top 25 of all Westerns ever written but I had no idea of that when I started reading it. I've read a lot of westerns in recent years and I can see why this one makes it on that list. It's not a stereotypical western shoot-'em-up actioner but rather a slower moving character-driven story. Thus, no doubt, its place on that list. It is certainly well-written, and I did enjoy it but I don't think it quite makes my own top 25 list.
October 30, 2019
Brilliant Western that, while not exactly A Clockwork Orange, at times it comes across as being written by semi-literate 19th century cowboy. Once you get into it, it doesn't seem that dense but I did have to use my kindles dictionary more than anything I've read in a while.
I didn't really like the ending but I get what the author was aiming for.
I didn't really like the ending but I get what the author was aiming for.
July 29, 2012
A western that is understated, very well written, and transcends genre. I ran into it when George Frazier wrote about it in the 60's, I think. Norton reprinted it on the basis of demand created for this out of print book which is again out of print. Worth finding a used copy online.
May 28, 2018
I love a good western movie, but had never read a western novel before this. After sampling the first pages, I was hooked. The writing is fast-paced and has some of the best action scenes I’ve ever experienced in written form. Highly recommended.
October 10, 2019
A brilliant read. The story takes you on a roller coaster of a journey, in which you are routing for Tot. That there is a basis of fact about the story makes the ending even more interesting. I urge you to read this book if you can find a copy, mine was printed a ver long time ago in the 1950s.
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