Yesterday I finished Horse Thieves' Trail which is the seventh book in an eight edition series by
John Legg writing as "Clint
Hawkins". This is the second of the Saddle Tramp series that I have read . Sioux Trail was the other. I must say that I enjoyed both books and found them interesting for a number of reasons. First I suspect that this series was inspired by the Edge western series. I see a lot of similarities between the leading characters. However, in my opinion,
John Legg is a superior writer in comparison to the author of the Edge books. I think I actually enjoyed Sioux Trail a bit more than Horse Thieves' Trail because the plot in Sioux Trail was a little tighter and most of the action occurred amongst the wide open western landscape. Still, although it was a bit meandering and slow to mount up, Horse Thieves' Trail certainly rallied to a rousing climax.
In my opinion the strong point in this series is the leading character Wade Calhoun. As I already mentioned Mr Calhoun is obviously patterned after Joe Edge but Calhoun is fleshed out a bit better and his motivations are more clearly defined. Calhoun is certainly different from the typical western hero. He is not good with horses, they die on him regularly. He does not avoid trouble but in fact goes looking for it just for he hell of it. He prefers harlots and cathouses over the company of "good women". He hates all Indians but does learn to give them some grudging respect in Horse Thieves' Trail. Calhoun doesn't have much respect for the law and will steal if he has to. Like other western heroes he likes guns but unlike other heroes Calhoun usually carries five or six along with a couple of knives. He rides off and leaves badly wounded bad guys and doesn't so much as look back or offer them a gun to finish themselves off with. Calhoun also isn't above doing some good old fashion torture with his bowie knife. To summarize, Wade Calhoun would make the
man with no name shudder. Ha.
Horse Thieves's Trail begins with Calhoun wandering about with a horse about to die from snake bite. He eventually winds up in a cathouse where he shoots a calvary officer. Forced to flee, he rides hard until he reaches another out of the way town where he gets a job hunting down horse rustlers. All signs point to the Comanches and their Choctaw friends but Calhoun can't find any sign of Indians except peaceful ones living like white people. Calhoun quickly becomes frustrated because he can't find the rustlers or any evidence that the Choctaw farmers he encounters are involved in the crimes.
Calhoun's dealings with the peaceful Choctaws forces him to re-evaluate his hatred of Indians. To complicate matters he finds himself at their mercy after getting bushwhacked. As if that wasn't enough a beautiful Indian girl makes his prejudices even more difficult to reconcile.
The Saddle Tramp eventually gets it all figured out and that's to bad for lots of folks because all hell breaks loose at that point. Calhoun and his Choctaw braves go off on some real low down white folks in a series of hard fought showdowns. Guess who wins?
Calhoun is so dark hes downright scary pardners. Still, his adventures do make for some interesting western adventure. John Legg aka Clint Hawkins has moved up the list of my favorite writers. He adds a powerful dash of psychology to the western character. He is also the author of the Texas Tracker series that is still going strong I believe. I certainly would be interested in checking one of those books out after having enjoyed some of the Saddle Tramp yarns. Give old Wade Calhoun a look but be prepared for some hardcore, blood and guts lessons in old west justice.