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The Desperado / A Noose for the Desperado - by Clifton Adams (Paperback)
About this item
Highlights
- THE DESPERADO It wasn't Talbert Cameron's fault.
- Author(s): Clifton Adams
- 282 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Westerns
Description
About the Book
Originally published in paperback by Gold Medal Books in the early 1950s, these two classic westerns depict the life of a young man turned killer outlaw in the Oklahoma territory.Book Synopsis
THE DESPERADO
It wasn't Talbert Cameron's fault. When Ray Novak, the sheriff's son, got in trouble with some Texas bluebellies, they just naturally come after Tall as well. After all, Tall is a known hothead who had clubbed a carpetbagger. Leaving his girl behind, Tall and Ray take off for the hills and lay low for a bit, until Ray decides to head back and face the law. Now, Tall considers himself a peace-loving man, but when he returns to find that Yankee soldiers have killed his pa, he naturally has to even the score. But this score takes a lot of evening, and pretty soon Tall is on the run. That's when he meets Pappy Garrett, a veteran outlaw who takes him under his wing and teaches him the tricks of shooting--and staying alive. Tall's gun seems to take on a life of its own as one score after another gets settled the hard way. Now, like Pappy, Tall's a wanted man with a price on his head--and the only peace to be found is the peace of the grave.
A NOOSE FOR THE DESPERADO
"It had been a long trail from Texas..." But now Tall Cameron finds himself in Ocotillo near the Mexican border, in a small town controlled by a gang of thieves. The fat man, Basset, controls the set-up, but a corrupt Marshall named Kreyler makes it all possible. The gang ambushes the Mexican smugglers who come out of the hills laden with silver. Basset wants Tall to join the gang and Tall reluctantly agrees. But he runs into trouble before he even gets started by attracting the unwanted attention of Black Joseph's girl, Marta. Black Joseph is an Indian gun-slinger who'd just as soon kill you as look at you. And Marta has got a helluva temper herself. Tall has never been one to back down from a fight. But this time he's fallen into a veritable snake pit, with no one to trust but himself and his two 45s.
Review Quotes
"One of the early Gold Medals, a beautiful western by Clifton Adams called The Desperado (1950), a novel with [a] compact, understated, almost reluctant treatment of violence, first introduced me to the notion of the character adapting to his forced separation from normal society."--Donald E. Westlake
"The Desperado delivers exciting Western action, well-rounded and sympathetic characters, and a spellbinding story. Adams continued Tall's story the following year with A Noose for the Desperado, a novel even more touched by Noir overtones than its predecessor."--Cullen Gallagher, Pulp Serenade
"Western readers will devour this...hard-hitting and gritty."--Kristofer Upjohn, Book Devil