Massacre at San Pablo

by Lewis B. Patten

Western

142 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2008

About the author

aka Lewis Ford, Len Leighton, Joseph Wayne (with Wayne D. Overholser)

Lewis Byford Patten was a prolific author of American Western Novels, born in Denver, Colorado. Often published under the names Lewis Ford, Len Leighto and, Joseph Wayne.

Reviews

[Edwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short novel covers a lot of bases. It’s a coming-of-age tale with Apache attacks, humble Mexicans, gunfights, bounty hunting scalpers, and a forbidden romance. Young Mark Atkins is consumed by revenge after the brutal slayings of his parents and then his adopted parents. The violence in his heart sends his budding romance with the perceptive Susan askew and now Mark has to deal with unrequited love on top of his quest for revenge. A fast-moving and interesting plot with solid characterizations make this a real page-turner.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oedipal hex? This is one of those books where you wonder if the author has read too much Freud. The "massacre" entails the killing of multiple father figures, sparking the young hero's desire for revenge. [spoiler alert] By extreme coincidence, the hero tracks the villain but falls for the pure and good girlfriend of the bad guy. Well that sure creates complications, and not just Freudian ones. He has to woo this wooman away from the vicious killer of his parents (that is, he must liberate mom from her subordination to the bad father), and that's difficult because, on the surface, the villain appears like a suave, handsome upstanding citizen. But the belle is convinced of the villain's villainy by his display of the trophy scalps of the hero's parents -- a very evident symbol of castration threatened. Yikes!