Law of the Trigger

by Clifton Adams

Western story of revenge.

Genres: Westerns

Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Piker7977 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid western with noir in its bones.

Review at Everything I Know I Learning From A Gold Medal Paperback

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Owen Toller, a former lawman, is roped into hunting down a hillbilly gang because the new sheriff in town is incapable of the task. Owen isn't doing it to help the local politicians with their bid for a new railroad, he's doing it for nobler purposes: to save common folk from Ike Brunner's wrath ... and save the hill people from themselves. But while he goes up into the hills against the Brunner gang, Owen risks losing everything that has come to mean so much to him: his farm and his family.

Law of the Trigger is a smart combination of hard-hitting pulp and moralistic western by the legendary Clifton Adams. I like books by Louis L'Amour for their simplicity and folksy nature, but Clifton Adams was never afraid to make the issues more complicated than "good guys wear white." His pulp detective background gives his westerns a gritty edge and there are no clear cut rights and wrongs. There's a lot of internal conflict throughout this book, but the writing gets tight when the shooting begins.

I thoroughly enjoyed Adams's The Desperado (though A Noose For The Desperado was lacking) and Law of the Trigger has quickly found its place among my favorite westerns.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Owen Toller lost the election for sheriff, he retired, married the school teacher, becoming a farmer He also was a father twice over.

Five years passed.

But when the Brunners, Ike and Cal, moved in and organised the hill people into a gang, it threatened a possible railroad spur in the area. Banker McKeever couldn't allow that. Since the Sheriff, a man he'd backed in the election, was more of a politician, McKeever went to Owen for help.

Owen says no and McKeever puts pressure on the former lawman, holding up his accounts at stores, forcing cash payments only, and a popular couple was gunned down in a holdup, also friends of Owen, the word coward was liberally used by the bank man.

And Owen's self-respect was also dented.

So despite his wife's fears, thet both agreed there was only one thing he could do.

[Warren Stalley · Rating 4 out of 5]

When ex-lawman turned farmer Owen Toller is forced into tracking down some wild bandits his whole world is changed as he reluctantly returns to his old gun law ways. As the towns people of Reunion shun Toller and his family he reluctantly agrees to track down the vicious Brunner gang. He is joined in his quest by Dunc Lester a young outlaw and Arch Deland an aged deputy. Bravely the trio venture up into the wild hills looking for the gang lead by the cold hearted Ike Brunner. The first half of the novel sets the scene with various incidents building slowly to the eventual hunt. While the second half focuses on the search and final showdown with the Brunner gang on a remote mountain hillside. Clifton Adams knew how to tell a good story and the novel is a classic piece of storytelling. I highly recommend this book to any western fan.