Trouble Rides The Wind

Flying U

by B.M. Bower

Book by Bower, B. M.

Genres: Westerns

240 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

Bertha Muzzy Sinclair or Sinclair-Cowan, née Muzzy, best known by her pseudonym B. M. Bower, was an American author who wrote novels, fictional short stories, and screenplays about the American Old West. Her works, featuring cowboys and cows of the Flying R Ranch in Montana, reflected "an interest in ranch life, the use of working cowboys as main characters (even in romantic plots), the occasional appearance of eastern types for the sake of contrast, a sense of western geography as simultaneously harsh and grand, and a good deal of factual attention to such matters as cattle branding and bronc busting.

Born Bertha Muzzy in Otter Tail County, MN and living her early years in Big Sandy, Montana, she was married three times: to Clayton Bower, in 1890; to Bertrand William Sinclair,(also a Western author) in 1912; and to Robert Elsworth Cowan, in 1921. Bower's 1912 novel Lonesome Land was praised in The Bookman magazine for its characterization. She wrote 57 Western novels, several of which were turned into films.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was published originally in 1935 so was another of Bower's later books but again she returned to the early days of her cowboy hero Chip of the Flying U ranch.

In this story he has been part of the Happy Family for a little over three years when he overhears a saloon conversation that makes him think that someone's life in in danger. Since one of the men in the conversation was the banker who was the ranch owner's new partner, Chip begins to ponder on the mystery.

Pondering can get a person into situations that are a bit tricky to get out of, especially if that person does not feel a need to go around telling anyone else what he plans to do. Just saying.

This book created a little mystery for me as well as for Chip. I didn't know anything about this new ranch partner, so I figured there must have been at least one book in between The Whoop-Up Trail and Trouble Rides The Wind. At least one book that would explain why J.G. (ranch boss) felt it was necessary to hook up with an apparently crooked banker in order to save his ranch.

And then there was the detail about Chip's horses. Last I knew about them, he had his original mini-herd of four. But here he had only two and had sold the other two. Why? When? Of course Bower doesn't explain, she just refers to the event in passing. This is what she did in her early books whenever the topic of detailed back stories on her cowboys came up.

So I went back to my favorite online bookseller and rustled up four other titles that Bower wrote in the 1930's. Two of them feature Chip, so I may be able to find out the mysterious details I am pondering on now.

Oh, by the way, in this book Bower proves again that she knew her horses and could depict them realistically. But there was a tragic accident to get through. Poor Mike. He was a peach right to the very end.

[Beckey · Rating 4 out of 5]

My edition is the 3rd edition from 1944. Not a bad older story from back in the day (geesh, I am sounding like my kids)