A bounty hunter takes a job tracking a pair of outlaws holed up in a small town about to get snowed in for the winter, thinking he can reconnect with his father and perhaps connect with a fiery young woman he had met there once before; but when he rides in and finds his father married to the woman, it makes for a long winter in Lee Leighton's Beyond the Pass.
Making things even more complicated, the outlaws don't seem that bad and the townspeople have a lot of dark secrets. As it happens, his new stepmother may be the most dangerous one of them all.
The western veers close to noir before the finale.
I had never heard of Lee Leighton, who was actually Wayne Overholser, until pretty recently, and was surprised how good Hanging at Pulpit Rock was. This one was also a cut above, with interesting characters and an above-average plot.
I was surprised again by Leighton/Overholser and happen to have one or two more in this big lot of mixed westerns I picked up.
No comments:
Post a Comment