Apache Ransom

by Clay Fisher

All Ben Allison wants in El Paso is to buy a horse. But after the sale falls through, he runs into an old acquaintance and agrees to escort her son home to his father. But Ben is late and misses the stagecoach, and when it's attacked by Apaches, the boy is kidnapped because Ben wasn't there to protect him. Will he be able to fix the mess he never intended to be a part of in the first place?

Genres: Westerns

176 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 1, 2018

About the author

Also wrote westerns as Will Henry.

Henry Wilson Allen (September 12, 1912 – October 26, 1991) was an American author and screenwriter. He used several different pseudonyms for his works. His 50+ novels of the American West were published under the pen names Will Henry and Clay Fisher. Allen's screenplays and scripts for animated shorts were credited to Heck Allen and Henry Allen.

Allen's career as a novelist began in 1952, with the publication of his first Western No Survivors. Allen, afraid that the studio would disapprove of his moonlighting, used a pen-name to avoid trouble.[3] He would go on to publish over 50 novels, eight of which were adapted for the screen. Most of these were published under one or the other of the pseudonyms Will Henry and Clay Fisher. Allen was a five-time winner of the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America and a recipient of the Levi Strauss Award for lifetime achievement.

Henry Wilson Allen was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Allen died of pneumonia on October 26, 1991 in Van Nuys, California. He was 79.

Reviews

[Alton Motobu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Post-Civil War Texas, 8-year-old son of the Texas governor is kidnapped by Apaches for ransom. Seven Texas rangers track them to Mexico, but they are ambushed, and only Ben Allison survives. He is nursed back to health by local padre, then they go after the Apaches. The Apaches in turn are ambushed by a gang of white scalp hunters who steal the boy. One of the surviving Apaches is a part-white warrior woman named Huera who is gravely injured but nursed back to health by Ben. They meet up with other surviving Apaches and recover the boy. They make their way to a hidden mesa on top of which is a paradise ruled by a Black deserter, R. E. L. Flicker, who was about to be was framed for murder by the Army. They steal a cannon and plan an attack on a cavalry troop. Ben Allison and the boy warn the troop so they are not massacred. Flicker and Huera escape back to the mesa.

If this sounds like a lot of action, it is. In fact there are too many subplots none of which are developed fully. The original story line about the kidnapped child is similar to the movie, The Missing, but the movie developed this story line only - no outlandish tangents about a hidden mesa, warrior woman, Black leader.