Book of the week: Savage Range by Luke Short

 This week's book is another western novel. Written by an author who called himself "Luke Short" after the famous 19th-century Old West gunfighter. The author's real name was Frederick Dilley Glidden, but Luke Short sounds better. He wrote over 50 classic Western novels and numerous pulp short stories, but the book I read is called "Savage Range" and it's a good novel.

The book is about a man who gets hired to clean out squatters from a huge tract of land, but the man who hired him used him and set him up for a fall, while the hiring guy savagely attacks the squatters and blames the hired hand. It's a good story,and you'll find some twists and turns and colorful characters. At some points you don't know who is right and who is wrong... but you'll figure it out by the end. 4 of 5 stars for me.

ABOUT THE BOOK: A ranch foreman must tame a bunch of cutthroat cowboys—or die trying—in this rowdy, action-packed western from a master storyteller. San Jon may be the sorriest town Jim Wade has ever set foot in. Its dry river, ramshackle buildings, and vicious lawlessness make it the spitting image of hell on earth . . . so Wade feels right at home. He’s used to solving problems with his fists and his gun. Wade’s come to take a job as foreman for a ranching outfit, which he finds in just as bad of shape as the town itself. The killers his employer calls cowboys are the roughest bunch he’s ever seen, and they’ve schemed up an awful plan that could cost Wade his neck. To survive, he’ll have to do what he’s done all his shoot fast and ride hard.