Catch and Saddle
Saddle and Ride is typical Ernest Haycox--great! The story centers around the hate of one man toward another over a woman--a typical scenario. This hating man wants all of the land--again typical of a western story. The man hated has a grief he has been trying to get over for 10 years, and eventually does--typical. There is a another woman who wants to help in any way she can, only to cause more trouble because she is a woman living in a land of violent men--typical. Add all of these typical things together, add Ernest Haycox to the mix, and it makes for a novel that shouldn't be dismissed as typical. Ernest Haycox had a flair and a way with words and situations that no one else has ever managed to copy; and in so doing he left an imprint on the "western" yet to be improved upon. I rank him second only behind Zane Grey, and then not by much. His books are not romances like ZG's were, yet they are probably more realistic, more like real life than the others. Ernest Haycox was an historian, and he put accuracy and exactness in his work and in his words. His last two novels, The Earthbreakers, and The Adventurers are true historical snapshots of how life was for the pioneer who went west to Oregon. The Border Trumpet and Bugles in the Afternoon are two of the best cavalry novels ever written set against historical events. A novel like Saddle and Ride is a sensational novel of the West containing every element, and more, that any reader of western or historical fiction would want. Highly recommended.