Hashknife and the Fantom Riders

Hashknife Hartley

by W.C. Tuttle

Hashknife Hartlely and his partner, two footloose cowpokes with a reputation for getting things done, are hired to look into the matter of disappearing cattle at the Circle Cross outfit.

150 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 20, 2020

About the author

W. C. Tuttle (Wilbur Coleman Tuttle) was an American writer, almost all of which were westerns. His best known character was Hashknife Hartley, who along with his friend Sleepy Stevens, served as unofficial detectives solving crimes on the ranches where they worked as cowboys.

He was also a screenwriter hailing back to the silent era. He wrote the screenplays for 52 films between 1915 and 1945.

A semi-pro baseball player in his youth, Tuttle served as President of the Pacific Coast Baseball League 1935-1943.[1] Tuttle recommended to the Los Angeles Angels that the team should ask Gene Lillard to join them.

Reviews

[Randy Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Entertaining Though Cliched Western

Featuring the range detective Hashknife Hartley and his pal Sleepy, this short novel is an entertaining diversion. The mystery itself isn’t very intriguing (the bad guys become pretty obvious as the book goes on), but there are some nice characters and the story moves along quickly. It’s marred by a lot of cliches involving Native Americans and a Chinese cook that some may find offensive, but if you can overlook those flaws, it’s an okay western.