Texas Heller

by E.M. Parsons

1869. When a man wearing Yankee blue returns home, he's a walking target... even for his own brother. When news of Fort Sumter reached Two Trees, Texas, Coy Quillen was one of the first to sign up. Not many people under­ stood his decision to join the Union forces, but Coy Quillen was a man who lived by his beliefs, everybody else be damned. Now the long, bloody years of fight­ing were over and Quillen comes home, a useless saber-scarred hand at his side. But that's not his biggest burden. He's a hated man, resented for helping whip the South. Not even his own brother will speak to him. And while he was away, Quillen's father died and their ranch was lost. There's nothing left in Two Trees for Quillen. Another man might turn around and go... leaving the town for good. But not Quillen. He's going to stand his ground....and raise some hell. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Elmer Merle Parsons was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1926. In 1949, when he was 23 years old, he was convicted of burglary and grand theft for stealing a car from a Phoenix used car lot and leading police on a wild chase that ended in a crash. He served three years in Chino State Prison...but didn't stay free for long. In 1955, he was arrested in Pasadena, CA for passing 22 stolen checks, which he told the court he needed to "tide him over" while awaiting money for a script he claimed he'd sold and because he couldn't get a job due to his prison record. He was sentenced to five years in prison, which he served at San Quentin, where he became editor of the prison newspaper and sold his first novel, "Self Made Widow," to Fawcett for $3500 advance under the pen-name "Philip Race." He wrote wrote & published two more novels, "Killer Take All" and "Johnny Come Deadly," under his pen name. After his release in 1960, he wrote one novel ("Dark of Summer") and several westerns under his own name and also contributed scripts for many TV series, including Sea Hunt, Cheyenne, Ripcord, Bonanza, The Dakotas, The Virginian and Flipper.

Genres: Westerns

164 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1959

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cut Above

Parsons, who wrote a few great crime novels under the name of Philip Race, pens a really good western here, proving he is an excellent story teller regardless of genre. This novel, though filled with familiar trope, is a cut above in both characterization and literacy. Read it. It’s also fun. Thanks Cutting Edge for bringing this and many other fine it neglects books back in print.