The Bandit of Hell’s Bend: Edgar Rice Burroughs – Book Review

The Bandit of Hell’s Bend was the first of the four Burroughs Westerns that he published between 1926 and 1940, and is easily the most traditional; the hero is a taciturn but straight-shooting cowpoke, the female protagonist is the strong frontier woman, and the pages are littered with stagecoach robberies, gunfights and attacks by savage Indians. In Burroughs next book The War Chief we get a much more enlightened view of the West and a more honest look at the conflict between Native Americans and the white settlers, but in The Bandit of Hell’s Bend, they are just dirty injuns and hardly worth the lead it takes to kill them.

The key players in this tale are Elias Henders, a rich rancher who also owns a lucrative gold mine, Diana his beautiful spitfire of a daughter, the ranches foreman Bull whose drinking problem puts him in bad graces with both his boss and Diana who he secretly loves, and finally there is Colby the good-looking charming ranch hand who uses his knowledge of Bull’s weakness to get him fired and steal the foreman spot for himself. Colby also has designs on the fair Diana, so basically, he’s Gaston but without the cool tavern songs.

Meanwhile, the local stage is repeatedly robbed by the nefarious Black Coyote while transporting gold from the Henders’ mine, and because Black Coyote wears a black silk handkerchief as does Bull that’s enough to have most folks believing Bull and Black Coyote are one and the same. Let’s hear it for Frontier Justice!

Things get even more complicated when the Wainwrights arrive and want to buy the ranch and the mine for a fraction of its worth, not to mention the younger Wainwright wanting to marry the fair Diana. Elias refuses to sell, but when he is killed during an Indian attack the Wainwrights team up with the daughter of his surviving partner, who also recently passed away, to steal the ranch from her. This is a Western that almost requires one to take notes.

The trappings of the story may be similar to many fans of Westerns but only Burroughs can take those clichéd elements and weave them in and out of a complicated plot containing a mystery bandit, stolen wills and a dark and twisted love quadrangle. The choice of making the hero being a recovering alcoholic was certainly a bold choice, but then again Burroughs loved to populate his books with colourful characters and flawed heroes.

Just who is Black Coyote? Will the Wainwrights be able to seize control of the ranch? Who will win the heart of Diana Henders? Well, the last one is fairly obvious but the journey to get there is immensely entertaining and provides the reader with a fun journey through the beautiful landscape of the Old West.