FORGOTTEN BOOK: HIDDEN RANGE

 Hidden Range by "Tex Riley" (John Creasey), 1946

The prolific writer John Creasey was best known for his mystery novels but he also wrote in others genres.  Among his 500 or so books, he wrote at least 29 westerns under three names:  Ken Ranger, Tex Riley, and William K Reilly; very few of these books were published inn\ America.  Hidden Range was one that was -- in the February 1950 issue Real Western Stories, edited by Robert A. W. Lowndes.

(There has long been a story about how clueless Creasey was about the Old West:  in one of his westerns he had a coyote flying overhead.  Sadly, the story is apocryphal; those who have read all of Creasey's westerns report no such passage, although it is possible that such a scene was included ib an early, or more likely, the story originated from Creasey himself as a joke.)

Hidden Range begins with Lannigan, a stranger to the area, wakes up under an oak tree on an otherwise parched landscape where he had bedded down the night before.  His horse, saddle, gear, food and guns were missing.  Someone, actually three someones, according to the footprints,  had managed to rob him blind while he was sleeping.  The nearest town, Ridge City, was fifty miles away, the nearest ranch perhaps five miles less.  A slim chance of making it on foot, without food or water, but a s;im chance was better than no chance if he stayed where he was.

The nearest ranch, Arrowhead, was owned by Hiram Tandy, a grasping old man with a streak of pure meanness that was almost as big as his ambitions.  Tandy wanted control of the entire area.  He had already bought up all the ranches save one around Ridge City, and he owned the town's three banks and most of the businesses.  The town kowtowed to his wishes and appointed the officials he wanted in office, including the hapless sheriff..  The only thing other than power he cared for was his young wife, forty years his junior.  Hiram Tandy was jealous and possessive as hell and Marion Tandy was beautiful and more headstrong than her husband had reckoned.

It took over a week, but Lannigan managed to make it to the Arrowhead, more dead than alive.  Marion Tandy insisted he be brought into the main house while her husband wanted him taken to the bunkhouse.  Tandy allowed no one in the main house because of his jealousy.  This time Marion won out and Lannigan was brought to a spare room.  Over the next few days he could hear the married couple arguing loudly outside his room.  Tandy grew to hate Lannigan because of his physical closeness to his wife.  Out of desperation, several of Tandy's hands bundled the man, still too sick to move on his own, into town and placed him with the town doctor who agreed to shelter him.   Weeks went by and Lannigan healed.  He needed a grubstake and asked the doctor where he might find a job.  The doctor recommended Jeb Grant, the owner of the Double-C ranch -- the only not controlled by Tandy.

The Double-C is a good spread but it is in trouble.  It is way understaffed, a number of hands had left for unknown reasons.  Fences and equipment have been broken and cattle have been rustled, but only a few at a time.  Minor inconveniences all but they added up to big trouble for the Double-C.  Lannigan is hired on the spot and soon finds himself at home with the ranch hands.  A week or so later, the sheriff and several of his men rode up to the ranch looking for Lannigan, claiming he was wanted for murder.  The sheriff also said that Lannigan was really Corliss, the most feared outlaw in Texas.  Grant told the sheriff that he hadn't seen Lannigan.  The Circle-C hands knew that Lannigan hadn't murdered anyone because he was working beside the entire day the killing was supposed to happen.  Lannigan denied being Corliss but Grant could not take just his word for that, so Lannigan told Grant he would leave the spread.

Not far from the ranch, Lannigan came across the bodies of four of Grant's men shot dead.  The bodies had been found just earlier by hands from Tandy's Arrowhead, who had hidden when they heard Lannigan's approach.  

From then on things began to heat up.  Rustlers were herding thousands of Double-C beeves when Lannigan and one of the men from Arrowhead came upon them.  With odds of thirty against two, Lannigan decides to foil the rustlers, almost costing him his life.  All clues pointed to Tandy being behind the entire plot and that Tandy had hired Corliss and his gang to help.  Lannigan decides the only thing to do is kidnap Tandy and make him talk.  They just managed to the Arrowhead owner away when Corliss and a bunch of his men show up looking for Tandy.  Realizing they had just missed Tandy, they ride in pursuit.

Returning to the Double-C (an ally had ridden off to hide Tandy), Lannigan finds the place in ashes with several of his friends burned alive.

Corliss ends up getting Tandy, and kidnapping Grant, as well as Marion Tandy.  A showdown at an isolated cabin pits Lannigan and an ally against Corliss and his men.  There's action aplenty before the entire situation is resolved.  Creasey adds a "gotcha" at the end that no one saw coming.

It's obvious throughout the novel that Marion is taken with Lannigan and Lannigan is attracted to her.  But she's married to Tandy and Jem Grant had his eyes on her before she married Tandy.  Can love be in store for Lannigan?

And those owlhoots who had robbed Lannigan at the beginning of the book?  It turns out all three were members of the Corliss gang nd they eventually got what was due them.

All in all, a satisfying oater with enough suspense and characterization to, please me.  Yes, it's a standard oater but there's nothing wrong with that.

P.S.  There's a bit of confusion between Hidden Range and another book by "Tex Riley," Forbidden Range.  The St. James Guide to Mystery and Crime Fiction the former as being published in 1946 and the latter in 1947.  FictionMags Index lists both books as being published in 1946 and conflates the two.  I'm up in the air.  Are the two different books, or are they the same?  Any help on this would be appreciated and my addled brain will thank you,