Rattlesnake Mesa

by Peter Dawson

While on his way to the Eagle Canon mining camp, Luke Barron discovers that someone with the same name as him has been viciously tormenting the miners, forcing Luke to race against time to find the other Luke Barron before a case of mistake identity brings about his own demise. Reprint.

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

About the author

Peter is the pen name of author Jonathan Hurff Glidden. He was born in Kewanee, Illinois, in 1907, and studied English literature at the University of Illinois. In his career as a Western author, Glidden published sixteen Western novels and over one hundred and twenty short novels and short stories for the magazine market. His first novel, The Crimson Horseshow, won the Dodd, Mead Prize as the 1941 Best Western of the Year. He died in 1957.

Note: "Peter Dawson" was also a pen name used by Frederick Faust (better known another of his pen names, Max Brand). Care should be taken when attributing books.

Reviews

[Benjamin Chandler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Luke Bannon wanders into a mining colony and finds a woman cutting a hanged man down from a tree. A sign is affixed to the dead man reading "Luke Bannon Beware". In town he discovers three men are in control—the sheriff, the doctor, the priest—and all are using the town's puritanical sect as a means of getting what they want. Luke must decide which of the three to trust to figure out why folks are afraid of someone with his name.

This really had all the elements to make a thrilling book. The sect, the machinations of the town leaders, the outlaws, romance, gunplay... Dawson does a pretty good job of getting into the characters' heads and their backgrounds and beliefs. There's a lot of theological and social ruminating, including thoughts on race, forgiveness, and vices. But it's just not exciting. In fact, it's boring. Dawson's prose style is so straight-forward that it lacks any thrills or beauty. I doubt I'll read anything by this author again.

This story was originally published in a 1940 western pulp under the title "The Wild Bunch Gun-Wages Couldn't Buy". If the book still had that title, I definitely wouldn't have read it.

[D. E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A PD. Western Adventure/A Mine Owner is Framed

PD. has. penned a western adventure thriller about a mind partner reroute to see the kind and his partner. He comes across a man hanging from a free with a note saying "He would kill any trespassers onto mine property." Luke realizes he will have to change his name until he finds the guilty party. This is an excellent read for the genre. ....DEHS

[Kat Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good old western