Coffin Gap

by Les Savage Jr., Jeff Harding (Reading)

Alan Craig has returned to Coffin Gap with a medical degree to find the town thriving. But hydraulic mining has polluted the lowland waterways & killed parts of the range, & poor sanitation may lead to a typhoid epidemic. Alan's efforts are hampered.

Genres: Westerns

7 pages, Audio CD

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

A writer from age 17, Les Savage Jr. was a contributor to pulp magazines for a number of years. In addition he penned over twenty books. A few of his better known titles are: "Treasure of the Brasada," "Silver Street Women" and "The Royal City."

Reviews

[Isidore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some fine western noir from Savage, who produced abundantly in the genre before dying at the age of thirty-five. This particular outing, from 1949, is determinedly unformulaic, with an unexpected environmental theme and relatively complex characterizations which do not move in predictable directions. The reader's expectations are thwarted even regarding the love interest, which for a long time develops in accordance with cliché, before lunging in a direction sufficiently unusual that the original publisher demanded, and got, a more orthodox ending. For this AmazonEncore edition, Savage's original finish has been restored.

My brain tends to switch off with boredom during fight scenes, whether in books or movies, but Savage had a remarkable gift for making fisticuffs interesting. The handful of violent episodes in the book are noteworthy for their breathless savagery, and somehow manage to be frightening and disturbing without transgressing into tastelessness.

I was going to give the book a four-star rating, but the novel's climax is less inspired than what precedes it, leaving one slightly let-down. But Savage was clearly a noteworthy talent, and I look forward to reading more of him.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A western with fuller depth than most - a little romance, but not too much (nor too graphic nor cheesy); medical & environmental concerns which are realistic to the time; complex interactions between characters with enough depth that you won't necessarily know what is coming next.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Doctor returns to his childhood Wild West town and ends up in the middle of a feud between miners and ranchers.

The story is reasonable, but the writing in places was difficult / too jumpy.