cover image The Stirrup Brand

The Stirrup Brand

Peter Dawson. Five Star, $25.95 (222p) ISBN 978-1-4328-2700-7

Peter Dawson is the pen name of Jonathan Hurff Glidden (1907–1957), a prolific western writer during the 1940s and early 1950s. Originally published as a four-part serial in Short Stories magazine, this novel reflects Dawson’s characteristic suspenseful and intricate plotting. New Mexico cowboy Fred Vance returns to the struggling Stirrup Ranch, owned by his family, in Wyoming to prevent it from being leased or sold to powerful and arrogant Senator Jim Kirby. In Fred’s absence, his mother’s second husband, Milt Hurd, along with family friend Tom Demmler, made a deal with Kirby that Vance doesn’t like. He makes his objections known, and is soon framed for murdering Hurd, arrested, and jailed. Demmler comes to Fred’s defense, but the evidence is stacked against him, and only a jailbreak will allow him to clear his name. Meanwhile, a murderous gun-for-hire makes it clear that more than one money-grubber would kill to get the Stirrup Ranch. A bushwhacking, a kidnapping, a surprising double cross, and some fancy gunplay leave a bloody mess for the sheriff to sort out, and Fred is forced into a fateful decision. Dawson reveals the double-crosser too soon, but the action and intrigue make for a wild ride. (July)