Comanche Captives

by Will Cook

Lieutenant Jim Gary's order were to rescue the white girl without starting an indian war. It was going to be the toughest assignment of his career. A good action novel in the tradition of Will Henry (Yellowhand / Yellowstone Kelly). Well-worth the read.

122 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

William Everett Cook was born in Richmond, Indiana in 1922 and died in 1964. He began writing for publication in 1952 for Popular Library. During his short life Cook was a soldier, commercial aviator, deep-sea diver, logger, peace officer, and writer of western and adventure novels and stories. His hobbies included sports car racing, sailing, judo, and barbershop singing. His pseudonyms include Wayne Everett, James Keene, Frank Peace, and William Richards.

William Everett Cook was a writer of western and adventure novels and stories. Collection consists of correspondence (273 letters), manuscripts for his novels, short stories, and one novella, and an extensive collection of western pulp fiction containing short stories by Cook.

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very good little western, nothing special but an easy way to spend a few hours reading time. I did have the feeling that the author perhaps had read THE LAST OF THE MOHICHANS sometime before writing this. ??????

[Jimmy Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comanche Captives tells the story of two men, each with different motives, sent to retrieve "all white captives" from a Comanche tribe, and the resulting fall out. Originally published as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post, this book was the basis for the John Ford movie "Two Rode Together." In the book, the two men, one ostensibly conducting the search for mercenary motives and the other for military advancement, each discover more about each other and about themselves during the search. The Bantam version is 122 pages, so it's a fairly quick read.

According to Wikipedia, John Ford felt that he had already done this movie with "The Searchers," and did this version for the money and as a favor to the late Henry Cohen. It's recognizable as a Ford movie due to the stock company actors, rather than the camera angles and wide vistas that mark a Ford film. Some of the shots are on a sound stage. In spite of extensive screenwriting effort, the book dialogue is a direct match to the script in many places. The ending differs slightly, but not significantly.

The character development the book offers makes the characters far more likable, and makes the actions of of key characters much more understandable, than the movie. Definitely worth the read.