Queer Trails to Doom by Gladwell Richardson was published 1948 (registered November) by Background Books Ltd. The novel begins on page 3 and concludes on 124. But don’t be deceived into thinking this is a novelette. The font is ultra tiny, to the point that each page contains over 50 lines of text! Assuming a bare minimum of 10 words per line, that’s 500 words per page (minimum) times, say, 120 pages, brings us to 60,000 words.
The cover art appears to be a black-and-white western scene from a movie of a cowboy bending another man backwards across an object: a table, a chair, a bar top, who knows? I don’t recognize the actors. Perhaps someone else better versed in Hollywood can supply their identities and perhaps the movie title. The cover art is credited to Littlewood-Moore, signing lower left. This would likely be British watercolor artist Frederick Littlewood-Moore. He died aged 52 in 1959. This is the first time I’ve come across his name on any of my paperbacks.
Gladwell Richardson wrote hundreds of pulp stories, but most of his novels were published only in England without a prior American appearance. Richardson hid behind nearly a dozen assorted pseudonyms, and this led me to wonder if Queer Trails to Doom could be The Trail to Nowhere, originally published under his alias Maurice Kildare via Ward Lock & Co. in 1938. Despite the similarity in titles, they are not the same novel. A copy on eBay featured a blurb with nothing in common.
Despite being presented as a western novel, it’s actually a cleverly disguised mystery novel. We don’t discover this fact until the closing chapters. The first two-thirds of the novel seem to be pure padding. Sure, it could be edited down but a lot of interesting facts would be lost. Many seemingly insignificant interactions throughout are necessary to wind-up this western-mystery thriller. And I sure as hell do not want to reveal all the assorted points, lest I ruin the story for a future reader! Yes, it is worth reading…
Jess Reval is our protagonist. He’s a young man in his young 20s. He’s created a reputation for being handy with a gun and more importantly, a man-hunter.
Hew Coleman, wealthy cowman, property owner and bank financier, wants a smart man to go into the badlands to hunt his wayward son, Walter Coleman. He’s prepared to pay a hefty sum: dead or alive.
Departing the Coleman house, Jess Reval is intercepted by Hank Kaiser. He operates and own a half-stake in Coleman’s bank. Asking if Reval has accepted Coleman’s job offer, Reval remains cagey. It’s his private business. Kaiser is disgusted. Appears that Coleman is holding out on Reval. Truth is, young Coleman is unofficially wanted for robbing the bank! The aged clerk was closing the bank when a gun was prod in his bank, pushed back in, and robbed. Despite being masked, the clerk recognized the voice. Shortly thereafter, Walter vanished from the town, leaving his sister Peg a note. He’d pulled up and was leaving for good, and he wasn’t leaving empty-handed. Kaiser wants Coleman found, too, but, not for a reason one would expect. Shockingly, despite the evidence, he believes that Walter Coleman is innocent of the crime. What’s more, he informs Reval that daddy Coleman actually doesn’t want Walter just found…he wants him brought in to face time for the crime, etc.
Reval has a lot of meat thrown into his lap. And two possible rewards. Two stories, some overlapping data, some slightly conflicting. Both are offering him money to find Walter, with slightly different terms. Reval wants to speak with the sister, but according to Hew, she is not available. Disgruntled, he sets out for the badlands.
While there, he hits upon a small town in the middle of nowhere. Anyone residing in the badlands has a reason for living there: they are wanted men. He meets various horrible scum of the earth. One is Travis, leader of a couple lowlifes that cling to him for security, smarts, and leadership. He’s got all that, and Reval suspects Travis may be educated and have come from a better lifestyle before turning to a life of crime. While there, Travis ends up standing up for a pretty young lady that belongs to another odd young man in the desert, informing all to lay off her. In fact, he hasn’t any qualms about gunning down one loud mouth.
Reval is certain the young man and woman are in fact Walter and Peggy Coleman, living under assumed names, and pretending to be lovers, to protect Peggy from the vile riff-raff. He’s correct. Only problem is, turns out Travis isn’t just protecting the girl’s honor. For some reason, he is aware of the bank robbery and of the identities of the pair. Clearly, someone outside of the badlands flapped their gums. But, who? Hew Coleman? Hank Kaiser? The bank clerk? Someone else entirely?
Reval locates the pair, now captured by Travis and his gang. The girl breaks free, runs into the secreted Reval. He explains he’s there to rescue Walter. The gang move off, greatly annoyed by his interference. Peggy is disgusted to learn Reval is a man-hunter.
To complicate matters, or add additional padding to the novel, a massive posse rides into the badlands and attacks the town, killing anyone they find. Which isn’t much. The outlaws may be against one another, but they are certainly in a concerted effort to avoid the law. The town is signaled and word spreads quickly. Everyone departs in various directions.
Walter is eventually captured again after trying to escape from Reval, which leads to all three being eventually captured by Travis. While holed up and hiding from the raiders, another band of outlaws enters their hideaway. Travis is angered by the entry. We are now dealing with the deepest, most vile scum of the earth. They want in on Walter Coleman. What’s more, the leader (Telepa) counts saddles and realizes there is one extra saddle present than people. He’s swift to realize Walter’s lovely sister is present. He and his men have no scruples where women are concerned.
Word of the raiders heading their direction forces Telepa and his gang to depart. Travis hands Reval and Walter back their guns, realizing they may be required. He doesn’t trust Telepa, and he knows the pair won’t kill Travis and gang lest they fall into the hands of Telepa or the raiders. Either one spells death. They ride hard and eventually Travis notices his men lagging further back until they vanish. Next, shots ring out. His men swapped alliances, and somehow provided Telepa their intended route plans! Ambushed, Travis imbibes lead through the body, but he, Reval, and the Coleman’s manage to escape the fusillade of explosive bullets.
Becoming delirious from blood loss, Travis dazedly instructs Reval to a secret location that he never imparted to his men. There, they find a dilapidated, long-since abandoned cabin built into a rock overhang, and some sparse vegetation. They treat and tend to the dying Travis. Reval, having grown up among Indians, uses his skills to pick appropriate vegetation to aid in Travis’ recovery and heal his wound. Peggy tends to him personally. She feels she owes the outlaw Travis for protecting her from the other outlaws. He recovers, and one readily notes he is grateful to be alive. Weeks pass while he recovers strength and shockingly one of his traitors arrives on the scene.
He claims to have broken with Telepa, glad to see his boss alive. Travis guns him down in cold blood. They realize that the man was part of a larger expedition, sent out to try and locate the missing Travis. Forking leather, they make haste to depart but are soon discovered. Realizing they can’t all escape, Travis breaks away and draws some attention, while the trio ride hard in the opposite direction.
Travis sends the Colemans alone out of the badlands and returns to the outlaw town with the intention of sending a communication to the last of Travis’ betrayers, as that latter person informed Reval he was the source of knowledge concerning the robbery. Seems this piece of crap confessed of the robbery to his boss, and that the aged clerk mistakenly identified him for Walter. The whole plans goes sideways when unexpectedly a couple bandits ride in, pushing the Colemans into the bar ahead of them. Everyone is in shock, but Reval acts faster and shoots fast. Sadly, not everyone dies, and Reval is angered to watch one ride away unscathed. Walter is pissed because that rider had his handgun.
Reval notices the bar man hands are under the counter and jumps over the bar and beats the man practically unconscious. Under the bar was a shotgun. There’s also a massive array of assorted other firearms! He digs through and picks out a quality gun, tosses this to Walter, who approves of his replacement. The trio depart and ride out of the badlands.
Finally, we enter the meat of the novel, the closing chapters. And some damn fine blood and thunder.
Reval goes to Hew Coleman’s large home with Walter and Peggy. Mission accomplished. He wants his money. Peggy is disgusted that he seems only after the money. Hew pays him, and then tells him he can leave. But Reval has other plans: he lays down the law, informing Hew that Walter is innocent, and angered that Hew did not disclose Peggy had vacated town after her brother, nor told him about the bank robbery.
The clerk is then dragged from bed and brought in. No matter what, he keeps asserting that Walter was the guilty party. He recognizes the voice. Reval has him rehash for his own benefit the entire crime from start to finish. Following the explanation, Reval discovers a hole in the story. Not a lie told by the clerk, though, but one perpetrated by the banker, Kaiser.
They then await the arrival of the banker, Kaiser, when the doors open and Travis and the real bank robber enter!!! All parties are nonplussed. Travis, a very much wanted man, has entered town, to bring in his own man. Why? He feels indebted to Peggy for saving his life, and believes in his own code of honor. The captured man confesses to the crime and while talking, the clerk gasps that he and Walter’s voices are identical. Further, he realizes that both have different body shapes, and dismisses Walter as the robber.
Kaiser enters, and Reval demands the reward from Kaiser, too! Reval then confronts him with the clerk’s story. See, everyone was told that Walter had stolen the bank’s funds on a specific night, but, truth is, Kaiser had told the clerk to sit on the facts for a couple days. That means Walter was still in town and had not robbed the bank and departed yet! What’s more, this provides an alibi for Walter, as he was playing cards with others.
Hew Coleman fires Kaiser for his duplicity and sends him packing. His son is put in control of the bank’s affairs.
Reval feels guilty about taking all the funds and Travis notes his hesitation. He steps forward and takes the money from Reval, informing him that if not for Travis learning the true identity of the robber and bringing him in, where would they all be? Walter would likely still be found guilty and swing for a crime he did not commit. Reval confesses Travis is correct and surrenders the money to Travis as the true recipient of the reward! Reval remarks it’s probably the most honestly earned money Travis has obtained in a long time, to which Travis agrees.
Reval is exhausted from running about for days without sleep and goes to depart. Peggy steers him to a room, and he falls asleep. He awakens to find everyone eating breakfast. And bizarrely, discovers Travis never left town! He’s seemingly taking a dangerous risk hanging around. He even went so far as to get cleaned up, body and clothes. He’s eventually convinced to depart town and rides due East. This puzzles Reval. East is more trouble. Civilization. Clearly Travis can’t possibly intend to keep riding that way.
Peggy accompanies Reval as he walks into town, headed toward the bank to speak with Hew and Walter Coleman. She’s no longer the dirty rider he’s knows for weeks. She is clean, wearing a dress, and lovely. She’s trying to learn if he has a girl, and he informs that he is interested in a girl but doesn’t know how to talk to said girl. Eventually she tricks him into confessing the girl is Peggy, but she already knew of course. Reval is struck dumb, because he was oblivious. Which is entirely natural. He was too busy trying to keep everyone alive. She walks away to go shopping and he spots Travis’s horse behind the bank. Realizing there is trouble, or suspecting Travis planning to rob the bank when nobody would expect it, he walks in. Reval enters and finds the Colemans inside…with Travis. They are annoyed that Travis is hanging around, possibly endangering himself. The local sheriff might see him. But he refuses to leave and he won’t explain why.
Reval knows why. The man Travis turned in for the bank robbery confessed that Telepa plans to rob the bank. And it turns out that Telepa is in town with his two surviving crumbs and they are headed straight for the bank! Annoyed at having lost possession of Walter and Peggy Coleman, they intend to take the bank right at closing time!
Travis is tickled pink. The Colemans are sent back, along with the clerk, to hide. Travis and Reval move forward and spread out. The trio enter and don’t immediately recognize the danger. Then the gunplay begins. And it’s a fun blizzard of murder.
Travis and Reval survive. Travis rides away, with his large reward, and remarks offhandedly that he’s sorry he can’t remain longer to attend the wedding!
Queer Trails to Doom is a sluggish novel where the badlands portions are concerned, but overall, it was an interesting read and all the better for Reval having to solve various intricate portions of the mystery concerning the bank robbery. Should another Gladwell Richardson tale ever cross my dusty trail, I’ll lasso him in. If you are hankering to read Queer Trails to Doom, you might be hard-pressed to located a copy, however, it was reprinted in at least one known Australian newspaper, serialized within The Central Queensland Herald from 2 June 1949.
Bizarrely, there is very little details about the writer posted online. The Arizona Archives has the best notes on the man. I’d love to chat up his daughters, Cecile and Toni, concerning their father’s pulp fiction legacy and hundreds of novels. It seems shameful that the man doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry. Shockingly enough, it only just now dawned on me that I actually do own another Gladwell Richardson novel, the title being Lightning Lomax. Yes, I will have to shuffle that book to the to-be-read stacks.