#41: Buchanan's Revenge by Jonas Ward

Buchanan is a drifter and knockabout who doesn't look for trouble; but when an old friend's son is bushwhacked and murdered, Buchanan thirsts for payback in Jonas Ward's Buchanan's Revenge.

This was a long-running western series, and I enjoy the early ones, by William Ard (who died after a half dozen or so), the best.  They are almost hard-boiled westerns, with rich characterizations and laconic storytelling.

I always grab these when I find them; this one at a used bookstore in New Castle, Indiana.  A good series for western readers.

#25: Buchanan Gets Mad by Jonas Ward

A laconic drifter (of which the fictional Old West was chockablock full of) has his horse come up lame at the outskirts of a town under the sway of a sinister fire-and-brimstone preacher; he reluctantly, and then with increasing fervor, dismantles the preacher's evil empire in Jonas Ward's Buchanan Gets Mad.

Buchanan was featured in a long series of paperback westerns beginning in the 1960s; I favor the early ones, written by William Ard, replaced by a flight of pseudonymous writers after his death.  This is a pretty tough western written written in a hardboiled style.

I found this for a single dollar at a flea market, along with several others, and read this one quickly.

#3: The Name's Buchanan by Jonas Ward

Buchanan is a hired gun with his own sense of honor, roaming the Old West; when he rescues a Mexican girl, and then her hotheaded brother, his code almost gets him killed in Jonas Ward's The Name's Buchanan.

This is the first of a long series of Westerns starring the stalwart Buchanan, who almost takes a backseat at times in this story as the tensions play out between a noble Mexican family and a murderous clan north of the border who hold sway over a corrupt town.

Buchanan was created by pulp writer William Ard, who writes in a hardboiled style that compliments the brawny cowboy overtones.  After he died, the series was written by others, and the other one I posted about on this blog was by a different author (and with a noticeable dropoff in quality).  Fortunately I came across a few more from Ard's tenure, and I am eager to check them out.

I was sent this for my beloved Kindle by my new pals at Prologue Books and read it quickly.

#54: Trap for Buchanan by Jonas Ward

Buchanan, a drifter heading towards San Francisco, ends up helping an old friend protect his mine from crooks, owlhoots, Mexican bandits, Indians, and other challengers in Jonas Ward's Trap for Buchanan.

This was another book featuring an author I had never heard of that I nabbed in a big handful from a flea market and have worked through sporadically.  Jonas Ward was a pseudonym used by a handful of writers in the 60s and 70s in westerns featuring the honorable cowpoke.  There was also a good movie starring Randolph Scott as the lantern-jawed Buchanan.  Trap for Buchanan was apparently written by William R. Cox, who seemed to have penned the lion's share of the series.

It is a nicely sturdy western with a hero who doesn't like fighting but, naturally, can only be pushed so far before fighting back.  Although not outstanding, it is certainly more serviceable than many Westerns and I will look for more by the phantom Jonas Ward.