Fawcett Gold Medal 1969
Robert MacLeod is one of the pseudonyms of Scottish author Bill Knox who was born in 1928 in Glasgow and died in 1999. Knox was a crime reporter who had his own 15-minute news show called Crimedesk but mostly he just cranked out crime novels. His longest running series was Thane and Moss which ran from 1959 to 1999 and had 25 entries.
Basic premise: Working man Joe Dyer leaves his claim to head back to Arizona to meet up with his business partner. On the way he stops at Spanish Wells New Mexico for the night. It’s the town’s 50th anniversary and one of the events is a beard growing contest. Joe gets attacked by two drunk cowboys because he is without beard. He fights back and gets kicked out of town. He comes upon a dwindling ranch and gets invited to stay for the night by Mexican ranch hand Santos. It turns out the two drunk cowboys live there. In the middle of the night there is a shot. One of them is dead, Joe is the main suspect, and he hits the road on the run from the law.
I really liked Joe’s temperament. He’s a serious sort of guy. Has a bit of a temper. He’s honest but also aware of the world he’s living in, so he does what he has to to survive. Like at first he stays right there and is willing to talk to the sheriff. While doing so the remaining of the drunk cowboy duo takes a shot at Joe and he’s forced to shoot back. From there he sees the game is fixed and the sheriff might be shady himself. His only course of action is to find Santos, who has run off to Mexico, so he can clear his name with the higher ups.
This is a great adventure mystery novel with an old West setting. It’s incredibly exciting as Joe tracks Santos to El Paso, Chihuahua, Cuidado and into the barren wild desert. There are historical accuracies that guide the plot including run ins with Pancho Villa’s army. On a train South they are overtaken by the militia who executes a slaughter of the foreign passengers. Joe of course survives or it would be a really short book and is now accompanied by a fresh widow named Ruth. Ruth was heading down to her family’s mine that she previously had to abandon because of Pancho Villa. Joe is still chasing down Santos so they are both headed the same way.
A romance slowly blooms between the two as they survive obstacle after obstacle. This thing cruises and whether they are fighting off bandits, surviving inhospitable desert terrain, mentally piecing together the initial murder mystery, hunting down Santos, giving Mexican history lessons or getting friendly, it is all engaging, well thought out and written wonderfully. On page 50 I was like, I can’t believe how much has happened already and it wasn’t clunky, forced or awkward.
Both main characters, Joe and Ruth are real folks with imperfections that you can sympathize and empathize with. The Ruth character has this great way of zooming out and seeing the bigger picture whereas Joe sees what’s right in front of him. It makes for an interesting dynamic in their conversations. This book is political. But not one sided with an infallible character. Valid points are stated and then something will happen to take it into a grey area. Ruth is an American who was basically run out of Mexico but gives speeches on how she understands why people are upset and do the things they do. She gives a wonderful speech on the history of Mexico and what led to Pacho Villa and the people who followed him. The author definitely had an affinity for Mexico. None of the Mexican characters are cartoonish or offensive.
Even though this is totally a Western, I feel like if you enjoy mysteries, historical fiction, adventure or romance you would love this. At times it felt like Amazon Queen or Romancing the Stone without the arguing and substitute the jungle for untamed Mexico.
No comments:
Post a Comment