Forgotten Books: A BADGE FOR A BADMAN by Brian Wynne (Brian Garfield) (1967)

In jawing about the first four Marshal Jeremy Six novels, I discussed Garfield's most commonly used theme. There is always, it seems, some outlaw gunman turning up in Six's jurisdiction of Spanish Flats who is ripe for redemption.

This fifth book gives us a variation on that theme. There's one guy who fits the mold, another who has already been redeemed, a third who is Jeremy's current project. What there is NOT is "a badge for a badman." Nope. Nary a one of them gets to don a star, or hankers to, or is even considered for such a role. Must be one of those title slapped on the publisher. (It should also be noted that, contrary to the cover art, Six does NOT have a little man growing out of this stomach, or little houses and riders attached to his arms.)

Nevertheless, the books begins in fine style. The first two chapters read like accounts of the build-up to the famous fracas nextdoor to the OK Corral. At such-and-such a time, so-and-so was seen to be walking up this-or-that street, where he was observed to do thus-and-so, It works well, laying the groundwork for a gun battle that leaves a hardbitten coot named Buel Marriner dead in the street. 

I'll let Garfield describe the showdown:

     Old Buel let out a long sigh of breath. "I didn't come here to talk, Six."
     "Then stop talking." Six's hatbrim rose a few inches. He was standing with his feet slightly apart, arms hanging relaxed.
     Old Buel nodded slowly. Some saw his shoulders stir just as his hand whipped to his holster. Earsplitting gunshots cracked the night wide open, and in the uncertain light it was hard to make out what was occurring on the street; but when the echoes died Six stood on the same spot, right arm extended with his gun lying fisted, pointing into space where Buel Marriner had stood.  
     Old Buel had crumpled to an awkward crouch; he seemed ready to pitch forward, but he did not. His revolver lay on the street below his hand, a small wisp of smoke rising from the bore.

Buel's son Cleve, who witnesses the fight, is one of the seemingly endless rannies Jeremy Six used to ride the river with. In the old days, Six had almost managed to turn Cleve away from the Dark Side, and now that the evil old man is dead, he has another chance. Standing in his way, though, is one of the most bloodthirsty villains Garfield ever created: Buel's widow - and Cleve's mother - an old battleaxe called Ma Marriner. 

Ma is a sort of quasi-female version of the Incredible Hulk. She has a voice like a foghorn, looks like she's been "clouted by the Ugly Tree," and has a disposition to match. Despite being told her man died in a fair fight of his own making, she's wants Jeremy dead, and insists her son Cleve do the deed. 

Meanwhile, purely by coincidence, a long lost cousin of the Marriner clan - Wes Marriner by name - comes trotting into town. Now on the dodge from the law, he's still another of Jeremy's old riding partners, and to retire from outlawry. 

That's the setup, and as you'd expect, there's many a shot fired before the whole mess is resolved. And that's all I'm telling, except that Jeremy will return in three books written by Garfield, and one penned by someone else. 

Forgotten Books: WILD TIMES by Brian Garfield (1979)

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a big honkin' fan of Brian Garfield. The Marshal Jeremy Six novels I've yapped about as Forgotten Books are my favorites, and those reviews recount my second trip through the series. I've also read and enjoyed dang near all of his other westerns (and there were a lot of them) plus Death Wish, Death Sentence and few other thrillers. But none of that prepared me for this epic titled Wild Times.

It's hard to even compare this book with his earlier efforts, but I'll try: If those earlier books were gourmet popcorn, Wild Times is a fat, juicy steak, with all the trimmings. 

Wild Times purports to be The True and Authentic Life of Col. Hugh Cardiff, though the pretence is only skin deep. An Afterword admits that the book's major characters, including Colonel Cardiff, are purely fictional. Still, if I didn't that, I'd have been googling the name to get the real skinny on the guy.

Cardiff's career has much in common with that of Buffalo Bill Cody, but he's clearly no stand-in for Buffalo Bill, because Bill makes one two appearances in the book also, and is frequently mentioned.

As the book begins, Cardiff is at the end of his career, relating a memoir to debunk all nonsense that's been written about him in dime novels and the newspapers. His goal in life, from a young age until his seventies, when the narration ends, is to be the world's best rifle shooter. In following that pursuit, he comes to the attention of dime novelist Bob Halburton, a fictional competitor to Ned Buntline, who first makes him famous with outrageous heroics, then takes him on tour in an Eastern stage-play, a year or so before Buntline does the same with Cody and Hickok.

After much more adventuring, bringing him into contact or near-contact with such folk as Al Sieber, Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp, and several years in exile while married to an Apache, Cardiff returns to the public eye to launch the world's first Wild West Show (again before Buffalo Bill), which he keeps going for another thirty years.

All the while, there's a whole lot of history going on around him, and the book's 476 pages are brimming with authentic Western life and lore. It's a real feast. As I finished it (and it took me almost two weeks) I was tempted to read it again.

Forgotten Books: THE PROUD RIDERS by Brian Wynne (Garfield)

The Proud Riders is the fourth installment in Brian Garfield's saga of Marshal Jeremy Six, and the most complex story (so far) in the series. This time we get three protagonists and three major plots all rolled into one book. And all that sold, back in 1967, for a mere forty-five cents. My comments on the first three books, Mr. Six-Gun, The Night it Rained Bullets and The Bravos, are HERE.

This being Jeremy Six's series, the story begins and ends with him. Six, for those coming in late, was a skilled gunman who rode pretty close to the wrong side of the law before settling down to accept the position of Chief of Police in barely-tamed town of Spanish Flat, Arizona. Six is cast in the Matt Dillon mold, complete with his own Miss Kitty, the madame and proprietor of a cat house/saloon on the wrong side of the tracks. Like Dodge City, Spanish Flat also has a right side of the tracks, and a saloon (the Drover's Rest) where folks from all walks of life brush shoulders.

Protagonist number 2 is Matt Chavis, the guy who did his best to tame Spanish Flat before Six came on the scene, now married and making a go at cattle ranching. As the story opens, his herd has been rustled and Jeremy Six is failing to get them back. Chavis is now hard against it, and the bank is about to foreclose.

Enter John Paradise, hero number 3, who just happens to be an old pal of Chavis. Paradise is this book's version of Garfield's favorite character - the world-weary gunfighter who just wants to be left alone, but his reputation won't let him. When challenged, he kills without regret, not because he's bad, but because the years have burned all the regret out of him. What sets Paradise apart from others of his type is that his rep has already cost him his right arm. Not to worry, though, he's equally capable of killing with his left.

Plot number 1 involves a Fourth of July horse race, with a $500 prize and the chance to earn much more on side bets. Chavis resolves to capture and tame a particular wild palomino in hopes of winning enough to stave off the bank.

In plot number 2, the U.S. Army ships a $65,000 payroll to Spanish Flat, where troopers from surrounding forts will be sent to fetch it, but not until sometime after the Fourth.

And plot 3 is built on the uneasy relationship of Jeremy Six and John Paradise. Six hates what Paradise stands for, while Paradise wants to be friends, and the conflict remains in play until the last page of the book.

Among the guest players mixing it up with our heroes are a family of redheaded outlaws, an arrogant fat cat from New York City, a thoroughbred racehorse and his small but noble jockey.

And that's all I'm sayin', except that Garfield brings it all home, as usual, to a satisfying climax.

Forgotten Books: THE BRAVOS by Brian Wynne Garfield (1966)

Many Brian Garfield westerns feature a world-weary gunfighter with a bad reputation. Everyone expects the worst of him, and - while no candidate for sainthood - he is partially redeemed by demonstrating a sense of honor lesser badmen could never understand.

The first two Jeremy Six books, Mr. Sixgun (reviewed HERE) and The Night it Rained Bullets (HERE) sported such characters, and if memory serves they are not the last. But The Bravos, the third book in the Six series, offers something different. In this one, Jeremy Six plays that role himself. 

When the citizens of Spanish Flat form a lynch mob, overpower Marshal Six and throw a necktie party for his prisoner, Jeremy resigns in disgust and hits the trail. He’s been deluding himself, he believes, in thinking that human beings even want justice - let alone deserve it.

Arriving in another town, he proceeds to drink and feel sorry for himself, trying not to care as he watches the citizens of this new burg prove themselves every bit as human as those he left behind. Will he eventually shake his funk and save these folks from themselves? What do you think?

Yeah, its predictable, but along the way we learn a little of Jeremy’s past. He once had a wife, but while he was out of town selling horses, Mrs. Six was unlucky enough to be trampled by a lynch mob. When Jeremy returned, he tracked down the leader of the mob and killed him in a fair fight. He then went on the gambling circuit, becoming known as “a wild man” with a reputation for quick shooting. When he finally slowed down enough to accept the job of Marshal, the citizens of Spanish Flat (as his Miss Kitty stand-in describes it), tamed him as much as he tamed them.

As a novel, The Bravos dished up a healthy serving of badmen, gunplay and tough Garfield prose, but I’ll be glad to see Six return to marshaling in the next book, The Proud Riders.

Forgotten Books is a pattinase production.

Forgotten Books: Jeremy Six returns in "The Night it Rained Bullets" by Brian Wynne Garfield

After rereading Mr. Sixgun last month (review HERE) I was eager for a return trip to Spanish Flat, and another round of blazing action with Marshal Jeremy Six. And The Night It Rained Bullets (1965) did not disappoint.

There's a storm coming - a BIG one - and no one wants to be caught on the Arizona desert. So everyone - including a notorious gunman and a gang of toughs Jeremy Six recently kicked out of town - comes slinking in to hunker down in Spanish Flat's saloons, hotels and bawdy houses. Once the storm hits, the blizzard is so fierce a man can't see across the street, and risks being swept just by venturing out of doors.

But Jeremy Six knows that each gathering place is a potential powder keg, especially those occupied by the aforementioned gunslinger and the gang of badmen. So out he goes, ably assisted by his relief marshal Bill Dealing and his deputy Dominguez (on Six's right and left, respectively, on the cover at left).

The fuse is lit when a spoiled rich-kid accuses the gunslinger of cheating at cards, and the gang of evil varmints threaten to carve up Spanish Flat's (and Six's) version of Miss Kitty. Hell starts a-poppin', and Six and his men are right in the thick of it.

Hard to say why I'm so partial to Garfield's prose. Somehow, he always says just enough - and never too much - to set the scene and keep the tension mounting. And amazingly, the guy was only 26 when this was published. Next up for Marshal Six: The Bravos.

WARNING: If you go hunting this on ABE, you'll find some dealers who think this 75 cent edition (Ace 57601) is the first printing. But the true first is Ace M-128, the one that sold for a mere 45 cents. Nothing wrong with the reissue, of course, but you should know what you're getting. The other side of both books is Nemesis of Circle A by Reese Sullivan, which I have not read.

More, more, more Forgotten Books at Sweet Freedom.

Forgotten Books: MR. SIXGUN by Brian Wynne (Brian Garfield)

Thanks to Open Road Media, many of Brian Garfield's novels - both mysteries and westerns - are back in print as eBooks. I'm all for that, because even though I've read many of those books, they're well worth reading again.

So far, the Jeremy Six series, which begins with Mr. Sixgun (1964) and runs through seven more novels, is NOT on Open Road's reissue schedule, but my fingers are crossed. I like series characters, and there seem to be all too few of them in western fiction (except in the so-called adult western series, which are a different sort of animal).

Anyway, Jeremy Six is one of my favorites, and it was a pleasure to get reacquainted by rereading Mr. Sixgun. Six is the marshal of the fairly typical fictional western town of Spanish Flat. The town has the normal complement of good folks and bad folks, some of whom keep to their own side of the tracks - and some who don't. There's a wide selection of saloons and bawdy houses, from sophisticated to sleazy. And there are some of the stock characters we've come to expect, like a good-hearted madame with whom Six carries on a sort of Matt & Miss Kitty relationship.

So the setup is pretty basic. What makes the series special is Garfield's lean, tough prose - and his talent for depicting good men gone bad and bad men trying to redeem themselves. One such character is the focus of Mr. Sixgun: a notorious gunfighter (and sometimes gun for hire) named Ben Sarasen. Six and Sarasen stand out above the rest of the citizenry like wolves among mutts, and the tension between them flows through the whole book.

The rest of Garfield's Jeremy Six books are: 2) The Night it Rained Bullets, 3) The Bravos, 4) The Proud Riders, 5) A Badge for a Badman, 6) Brand of the Gun, 7) Gun Down (not Gundown, that's a different book), and 8) Big Country, Big Men. BEWARE: Gunslick Territory, another Jeremy Six novel published under the Brian Wynne name, was not written by Garfield.

More Forgotten Books at pattinase.