Abilene

Stagecoach Station #10

by Hank Mitchum

1984, trade paperback large-print edition, G.K. Hall, Boston, MA. 261 pages. Volume 10 in the Stagecoach Station series. Western fiction involving the cattle town of Abilene.

Genres: Westerns

179 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

House name for James Reasoner and others such as D.B. Newton and Will C. Knott.

American author James Reasoner specializes in historical military novels, westerns, and mysteries. He also writes under the pseudonyms "Mike Jameson", "Hank Mitchum" and "Dana Fuller Ross." He has written more than 40 novels. His spouse, Livia Washburn Reasoner, is also a prolific writer of westerns, mysteries, and romances. The Reasoners were each raised in Texas, and currently live near Azle, Texas.

Perhaps Reasoner's best known work is the ten-volume James Reasoner Civil War Series, which features the fictional Brannon family. The series is set in the town and county of Culpeper, Virginia, a major Confederate supply depot in central northern Virginia north of the Rapidan River.

Reasoner has another series of novels set in the American Civil War era, "The Palmetto Trilogy." This series is set in South Carolina and revolves around the Tyler and Gilmore families.

In addition to authoring the Walker, Texas Ranger books, he has written several volumes in the Wagons West series, a frontier series starting with the first wagon train heading to Oregon in 1837, and continuing on with their descendants up through 1941.

Reviews

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abilene, Kansas rose to prominence in 1867 when the Kansas Pacific railway (Union Pacific) pushed through town prompting Joseph McCoy to build a hotel and stockyards to attract the cattle business. This led to a few great years in the history of the ol’ West, especially noteworthy for the town’s rarely-matched reputation for violent drunken revelry by the cattle drovers coming in and letting off steam.

Bill Knott is once again behind the “Hank Mitchum” house name for this book. The novel, while part of the large “Stagecoach” series of westerns, doubles as a fairly accurate historical novel as well. Several of the main characters are historical, not the least of which is “Wild Bill” Hickok, who was marshal for a brief time. Also of note is the presence of his deputy, Mike Williams, and gambler, Phil Coe. These historical characters are rounded out by a handful of fictional characters with their own subplots including a newspaper editor, a recent widow from back East, and a slimy gunslinger intent on revenge.

I enjoyed this entry in the series quite a lot, probably for the historical bits which helped flesh out my own understanding of the events that took place in Abilene at that time. I had heard of the infamous Bulls’ Head Saloon incident wherein the proprietors had painted a picture of a bull with a large, erect penis on the side of their establishment. The scenes where Hickok handled the near riot that occurred and the final resolution were fun to read. The novel also details some rather sad and even tragic events for a couple of the main characters but balances this out with happy endings for others.

Looking forward to the next station in the Stagecoach series which picks up several years later with Hickok now in Deadwood, South Dakota, even though I know what is coming…

[Aaron G · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must say that I could barely put this one down. Although it's a very fictionalized account of the last year of Abilene, Kansas as a cowtown and Wild Bill Hickok's short tenure as the town marshal, it's very exciting and makes for a good read. The story draws out for the reader the often violent nature of these pop-up frontier towns. I must wonder how accurate the story was in how it painted the rowdiness of the Texan cattle drivers that flooded Abilene's streets. All in all, a very good read and probably my favorite of the Stagecoach Station series thus far.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, melodramatic, and easy to read Wild West pulp fiction. And it is interesting in that it does capture at least a little actual history.