John Henry Reese (1910–1981)

“Rich Man’s Range” starts out as a typical pulp fiction western. We are introduced to the valiant loner, the beautiful woman, and the despicable villain. The woman is part owner of a ranch. The villain plans to take the ranch and the woman. Into this situation rides the loner, who undertakes an almost single-handed effort to save the woman and her ranch.

The loner and woman are attracted to each other but various developments lead them to mistrust and detest each other. As the situation becomes desperate we have to wonder, “Will the loner be successful? Will the woman and loner find true love and ride off happily ever after into the sunset?”

“Rich Man’s Range” differs from the typical pulp western formula in a couple of respects. First, the villain is not particularly impressive. The author hints that the villain is deadly with a buffalo gun but that does not figure into the story until close to the end. Instead, most of the developments seem to favor the valiant loner.

In addition, a lawyer could have written this novel. The loner does not gain the upper hand in a shoot-out on a dusty street. Instead, the loner goes to court and wins a writ preventing the villain from stealing the woman’s ranch. In the end, the villain’s comeuppance is not even at the hands of the loner.

“Rich Man’s Range” is flawed by a slow beginning. Mostly of the scenes consist of the loner and the woman arguing with each other. Slowly the story is set up but the author forces the reader to patiently slog through a lengthy, boring introduction. The second half of the book is slightly more interesting but not sufficient for me to recommend it to readers.… (plus d'informations)