Shorty

by Clifton Adams

"Shorty Gibbs found himself on the gray edge of consciousness and tried to figure out where he was and who was talking to him. His head ached and there was a wooly taste in his mouth. He remembered hoping to finish his mail run before sundown--and then flying through the air. The old-timer in whose cart he lay was talking nonsense. He said Shorty had been shot and that he'd been unconscious for three days. Suddenly Shorty realized that he'd better make an effort to come out of it. Someone had deliberately tried to kill him--and left him for dead on the banks of Gyp Creep. Now Shorty wanted to know why."

Genres: Westerns

210 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Benjamin Chandler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shorty is a 5'6" mail-carrier with a temper to match his name. He wakes with a head wound in a sheepherders wagon. His height worked in his favor—someone tried to shoot him in the head, but the bullet only grazed his scalp. Whoever shot him, stole his mail, too. After getting patched up, Shorty comes back to town to find out that the residents believed he was dead. The bad news is that they lynched a stranger who they thought killed Shorty. It doesn't take Shorty long to realize that the lynched man was innocent and the victim of a conspiracy that might also involve Shorty's stolen mail and the sheepherder who saved him.

I thought at first that this was going to tread familiar ground when the whole town turns on Shorty at the story's start, which was a motif in the last Adams book I read. But the novel quickly becomes a different animal, evolving into a somewhat complex collection of dots that need to be connected.

Adams mainly keeps the 3rd person narration in Shorty's head, but he sometimes wanders into the thoughts of other characters, mostly Shorty's companions who get wrapped up in the web around Shorty's almost-murder. I'm not a lover of 3rd-person omniscient narration—I prefer to hear a story from one angle—but for 90% of the book, this is Shorty's story, and it's a good one.

[Simsd953 · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I was growing up as an avid reader (who had read everything in our small town library) I always enjoyed when one of my uncles would give me a huge paper bag full of books - mostly western. This was one of the last he passed along. Thanks. R.T.

[Mark Ennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best western I enjoy reading about Gibbs.

[Gloria Jorg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only 223 pages large print with a compelling story about the lawless west. Wonderful writing. I will definitely be looking for more books by Clifton Adam’s.