"Marvin H. Albert, the author of more than 100 westerns, mysteries, spy novels and works of history, died on March 24 in Menton, in the south of France. He was 73 and lived in Mont Segur-sur-Lauzon.
The cause was a heart attack, said his daughter, Jan.
Mr. Albert was born in Philadelphia and served as a radio officer in the Merchant Marine during World War II. After working as the director of a children's theater troupe in Philadelphia, he moved to New York in 1950 and began writing and editing for the magazines Quick and Look. He turned to writing full time after the success of his novel "The Law and Jake Wade" (1956).
In addition to popular westerns, mysteries and novelizations of Hollywood films, he wrote "The Long White Road," a biography of the Arctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, "Broadsides and Boarders," a history of great sea captains, and "The Divorce," about Henry VIII. He wrote novels under his own name and under the pseudonyms Albert Conroy, Al Conroy, Nick Quarry, Anthony Rome, Ian MacAlister and J. D. Christilian."
Jess Remburgh seeks revenge on the man who raped and killed his wife; he becomes mixed up in battle between Apache renegades and cavalry. Meets the wife of the man he is looking for. Combines brutality of Gordon Shirreffs with romance of Clay Fisher. Very interesting story. Basis for the movie, Duel at Diablo.
A taut and violent short western that finds young Jess Remsberg, consumed with avenging the rape and murder of his wife, scouting for an Army wagon train that finds itself outnumbered in a brutal case-and-mouse battle with a band of merciless Apaches. The tension remains high as the brilliant Apache warlord Chata matches wits step for step with young and ambitious Army Lieutenant McAllister who is close friends with Jess. I really liked how their friendship was portrayed. The love interest is a married woman victimized by Chata’s men, and mother to a half-breed, and her abusive husband scorns her. A superior and very brutal military strategy tale, encapsulated within a revenge story, with a little romance thrown in. Recommended.
This started as a very personal story about a man seeking vengeance for his slain wife, but then it became one of those US army vs the Indians stories which I am less interested in. Whenever the focus was on Jess, our bitter widower, the story was compelling. Albert is a good writer. His descriptions of enduring the elements and surviving in the badlands can be thrilling. But when the story came to a point where Jess was trapped with a military regiment in a canyon surrounded by Apaches, the novel just ground to a stop. I felt like I was trapped, too, and couldn't wait to get out of the book. Such a bummer, too, because the first 30 pages were pretty good and I was thinking I found a new writer to investigate.