He Rode Alone

by Steve Frazee

The boy walked out of the wilderness in the late summer of 1855, carrying the sun-blackened remains of a jackrabbit he had been eating on for two days. He had been alone in there for ten days. Behind him were three graves, and with him was the memory of a family named Snelling that he would one day hunt down and destroy -- slowly, terribly. That boy became a man, bleak-eyed and dangerous, who rode, always alone, carrying only the grim comfort of a black memory. Murder lay at the end of his trail. Murder, and a girl he loved.

Genres: Westerns

157 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1956

About the author

Steve Frazee was born in Salida, Colorado. He began making major contributions to Western pulp magazines with stories set in the American West as well as a number of North-Western tales published in Adventure. Not surprisingly, many of Frazee's novels have become major motion pictures.

Reviews

[Dartharagorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like others have said. This is definitely not a shoot-em up type western. More of one boy/mans journey dealing with the trauma of what happens to his family. How he chooses to deal with it and how he finally gets some closure. The ending was amazing and was a hell of a twist I never saw coming and made it so good! If you're looking for a shoot em up then skip this one. Other than that it's a great story masterful written. You can really feel the Ed's pain. Highly recommend!

[Regan MacArthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a Western. This is not escapist literature. Frazee's got something to say about the human condition in this book. A plot summary would only be misleading. It would sound like a standard revenge yarn and this book is most definitely not that. It's a story about a human heart, really. Eddie went through a severe trauma when he was thirteen and he doesn't want anything like that to ever happen to him again but being closed-off is spiritual suicide and, deep down, he seems to know that. There's genuine suspense about whether he'll find his way.
Yeah, this one surprised the hell out of me.

[Alton Motobu · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the way to California in 1855 13-year-old Ed Cushman is orphaned when his family dies from cholera. The other family in the wagon train takes the Cushman's supplies and abandons him. He finds his way to a small trading post where the people take him in and train him to be a blacksmith. But Ed is filled with anger and vengeance toward the people who abandoned him, so he leaves the trading post after three years and wanders throughout the Rockies for the next 16 years. He stumbles into a gold mining camp one day and is befriended by the miners. There is a lunch wagon where a woman (Lizzie) has set up a business to feed the miners for gold. But one day the woman's father and brother show up - it turns out they are members of the family that abandoned Ed years ago, and Lizzie is the daughter. Ed is enraged when all of the memories return, and he is ready to kill them. But cooler heads prevail, and Ed decides to let them be. He and Lizzie ride into the sunset.

Ed Cushman is not a likeable character. He has reason to be unfriendly and vengeful, but he does not know how to free himself of this burden. The ending is sudden and hopefully he and Lizzie will find happiness together.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow in places, but pretty good. I didn't like the main character that much.