Tuesday 3 March 2009

February's Dales Westerns

Every month Ulverscroft publish several Dales westerns. These are often reprints of Black Horse Westerns. The large print paperbacks are slightly larger than BHWs.

Jim Bowden - Two Gun Justice
I'm fairly sure this wasn't previously a BHW.
Jake Warren, owner of the Diamond D ranch near Santa Rosa, New Mexico, desires to add the Lazy A spread to his property and to run the town. Two men stand in his way, Mal Clements, property owner in Santa Rosa, and the sheriff, Frank McCoy. Warren frames McCoy for the murder of Mal Clements, but McCoy escapes from jail with the help of his girl, Abbe Clements, who believes in his innocence, and of his deputy, Mark Stevens. They have already sent word about the trouble to Frank's brother Dan, sheriff of Red Springs - can he clear his brother's name?
Amazon.co.uk

Hank J. Kirby - Call me Ringo
The man called Ringo almost drowned in a flooded river, but thanks to a strange old wanderer calling himself Cap he survived. Ringo was a man who didn't care to be beholden to anyone, so when Cap told him about his quest for vengeance, Ringo knew how he could square the score. What he didn't know was just how much blood and gunsmoke he was riding into, and he began to have doubts about the man to whom he owed his life. Who was he? Could he be trusted? Now it was a case of life or death - Ringo's.
Amazon.co.uk

6 comments:

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Do the covers differ at all on these to the original BHW's - I assume they do.

I.J. Parnham said...

They are very much different! The Dales Westerns are handsome looking books with a full page picture, and as they are an inch or so larger than BHWs they make an impact. They don't appear to be quite as common as Linford Westerns so only two have mine have been reprinted as Dales.

Perhaps with more time I might be able to track down the covers, but I'm not intending to take on my more than I can handle here.

Anyhow, if you search on amazon for 'Death Bounty Dales' you should find one of my old ones and you can see what they look like.

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Will do - oh and speaking of yours. Enjoyed Devine's Law and will review soon on The Archive. I've got a brand new signed copy - think I got it off Ebay.

I.J. Parnham said...

Thanks. It sounds like someone bought a book off me then went and stuck it on ebay. Not that I mind!

Jo Walpole said...

How annoying. I read the synopsis for Call me Ringo and it seemed really familiar, like I could probably tell you what happens, but I can't remember ever reading it. That's a downside to giving books away once you've read them! I don't have a point of reference after three years ago when I started keeping a list of 'books read'. I'm going to be scratching my head now until some other mystery comes along. :-)

Unknown said...

"Jim Bowden" is "Jessica Blair" who is Bill Spence who wrote for one of my earliest publishers/employers back in the 1960s. His website lists all his westerns for Hale and their publication dates. He had an article about his very interesting life in the last Black Horse Extra ( www.blackhorsewesterns.com/bhe12 ). The article also contains a link to his website.

"Hank J. Kirby" is my Aussie friend Keith Hetherington. You can read about him (and the real Ringo!) at www.blackhorsewesterns.com/bhe4 . The latest news from Keith H. is not good. He emailed me on Sunday: "Workwise, I'm slowing down. Can't sleep, too damn tired to think." He has multiple health problems, including suspected glaucoma in both eyes. Before he became a top BHW writer in the mid-nineties, he was part of the Cleveland stable. He wrote hundreds of westerns for them and, though he never complains, I believe he was treated no better than Leonard Meares and his widow.