Hell Hath No Fury

I love a good Western novel, but they seem few and far between nowadays. Once upon a time Louis L'Amour put one out every year, and Larry McMurtry wrote several. But though they are still being published, the quality seems to have thinned. Hell Hath No Fury, by the appropriately named Charles G. West, won an award from the Western Writers Of America for Best Novel, but I found it just okay.

West has created a character name John Hawk, and this is the first in a series, which right away tells us that Hawk will not die, although he gets shot at often. The first problem with this book is that Hawk is basically Superman in buckskin. He is always one step ahead of his enemies, and has no faults that I can discern. Characters who have no flaws aren't very interesting.

We meet Hawk as he is working as a scout for the U.S. Army in Montana. He was raised by the Indians, so knows their ways. "He had lived too long with the Indians to not see their side of things." This being a book written in contemporary times, it is as politically correct as possible--the bad Indians are a rogue party of Sioux, while Hawk helps Blackfeet that have stolen cattle, because they are starving.

Hawk's rival is Roy Nestor, who is directly opposite of Hawk. He has no redeeming features. When he drunkenly calls Hawk out, the scout with a hawk feather in his hat humiliates him, thus earning himself an enemy. We patiently wait for these two to face off at the end of the book.

West tries to keep a lot of balls in the air, not always successfully. Hawk is hired by a rancher to find his brother and sister-in-law. He then gets involved with a war with another rancher. There are a lot of dead people by the end, but Hawk is always shooting in self defense. Twice he is saved by circumstances beyond his control, which is really stretching it, since these incidents happen only a few chapters from each other.

Still, even an average Western is a pleasure. West has a nice way with a phrase, such as describing two gunmen: "Between the two, there weren’t enough brains to fill the head of a lizard." And though Hawk is too perfect, one can't help but admire the man. I kept picturing a younger Sam Elliott playing the part.