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Rita
She gave him a choice for his $100,000 -- her untamed young body or his own sudden death.
Joe Duncan is a man on the run with $100,000 in stolen cash from a Nevada casino. But he makes the mistake of picking up a seemingly desperate woman on the highway who has some dark secrets of her own. And her brother just happens to be the corrupt police chief of the small town that Duncan hopes to hide out in. Soon everybody wants Duncan's stolen money... and they are willing to kill to get it.
"Gaulden keeps things moving along in the same sort of nice, hardboiled prose you find in his Westerns, and the plot has some clever twists in it. I enjoyed this book enough that I’m sorry Gaulden didn’t write more in the hardboiled crime genre." Rough Edges
"This is pure pulp stuff and it’s a little on the trashy side but it has plenty of pure noir atmosphere and plenty of noir desperation. It has characters who are trapped animals, wanting to escape but not knowing which way to run. A fairly effective little noir potboiler. Highly recommended." Vintage Pop Fictions
Ray Gaulden (1914-1986) aka Wesley Ray was a prolific author of westerns, including McVey's Valley, Action at Alameda, High Country Showdown, and Glory Gulch, which was made into the 1968 movie Five Card Stud starring Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum. This was his only "non-western" novel.
Joe Duncan is a man on the run with $100,000 in stolen cash from a Nevada casino. But he makes the mistake of picking up a seemingly desperate woman on the highway who has some dark secrets of her own. And her brother just happens to be the corrupt police chief of the small town that Duncan hopes to hide out in. Soon everybody wants Duncan's stolen money... and they are willing to kill to get it.
"Gaulden keeps things moving along in the same sort of nice, hardboiled prose you find in his Westerns, and the plot has some clever twists in it. I enjoyed this book enough that I’m sorry Gaulden didn’t write more in the hardboiled crime genre." Rough Edges
"This is pure pulp stuff and it’s a little on the trashy side but it has plenty of pure noir atmosphere and plenty of noir desperation. It has characters who are trapped animals, wanting to escape but not knowing which way to run. A fairly effective little noir potboiler. Highly recommended." Vintage Pop Fictions
Ray Gaulden (1914-1986) aka Wesley Ray was a prolific author of westerns, including McVey's Valley, Action at Alameda, High Country Showdown, and Glory Gulch, which was made into the 1968 movie Five Card Stud starring Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum. This was his only "non-western" novel.
156 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 14, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 12, 2026
The tagline on the original Zenith cover does not exactly encapsulate the actual story, but it probably worked as a come-on for the eager reader. There’s almost always a suitcase full of money or a bus station locker or a plain wrapped package waiting at General Delivery.
Joe Duncan is the poor sap who stars in this tale, thinking he has made a clean getaway with $100,000 from a Reno casino in an ordinary-looking suitcase. He’s still bitter that his wife and his old buddy conned him out of $25,000 and cuckolded him to boot, but he figures the $100,000 he got out of the safe puts him ahead. Joe is nervous and shaking, not sure if he dot away or 9f they were somehow on his tail. He figures to hide out in a small Washington state fishing town he remembers from childhood, figuring he’d be safe in nowheresville.
But sometimes there’s no safety anywhere. He picks Rita up hitchhiking: “She was wearing a yellow blouse and a cheap black skirt, too short and too tight, but her face wasn’t bad. Black hair and green eyes, eyes that had seen a lot of living. No lines in her face, yet. Wait another five years, he thought.”
Rita’s vicious brothers ran the small town of Salmona, one being the sheriff, one being the town bully no one could touch. Pretty soon his car is rendered inoperable and Joe is all alone a stranger in a strange town with barely no one to help him when the brothers get wind he fits the description of the all points bulletin on the casino thief. The worst is that Brice and his brother have no interest in extradition. They want that $100,000 for themselves and they’ll do whatever it takes to get it out of him.
Gaulden puts the reader directly in Joe’s head and you can feel viscerally how he feels trapped and desperate and backed into a corner with no way out.
Joe Duncan is the poor sap who stars in this tale, thinking he has made a clean getaway with $100,000 from a Reno casino in an ordinary-looking suitcase. He’s still bitter that his wife and his old buddy conned him out of $25,000 and cuckolded him to boot, but he figures the $100,000 he got out of the safe puts him ahead. Joe is nervous and shaking, not sure if he dot away or 9f they were somehow on his tail. He figures to hide out in a small Washington state fishing town he remembers from childhood, figuring he’d be safe in nowheresville.
But sometimes there’s no safety anywhere. He picks Rita up hitchhiking: “She was wearing a yellow blouse and a cheap black skirt, too short and too tight, but her face wasn’t bad. Black hair and green eyes, eyes that had seen a lot of living. No lines in her face, yet. Wait another five years, he thought.”
Rita’s vicious brothers ran the small town of Salmona, one being the sheriff, one being the town bully no one could touch. Pretty soon his car is rendered inoperable and Joe is all alone a stranger in a strange town with barely no one to help him when the brothers get wind he fits the description of the all points bulletin on the casino thief. The worst is that Brice and his brother have no interest in extradition. They want that $100,000 for themselves and they’ll do whatever it takes to get it out of him.
Gaulden puts the reader directly in Joe’s head and you can feel viscerally how he feels trapped and desperate and backed into a corner with no way out.
December 17, 2022
Joe Duncan is caught in a trap. He's on the run, having stolen $100,000 from his unfaithful wife and her lover. He decides to hide out in a small fishing village on the Pacific coast, but he runs into Rita Gale and her two sadistic brothers who want the money for themselves. They run the town, and the only person who will stand up to them is Dr. Howard - but he's dying. They all come together to fight for the soul of the town. Oh, and the $100,000...
The cover (and blurb) make this look like an exploitation novel, but it's actually a fairly decent crime story, well-written and entertaining. With just a little sleaze....
The cover (and blurb) make this look like an exploitation novel, but it's actually a fairly decent crime story, well-written and entertaining. With just a little sleaze....
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews