The Lone Ranger and the Mystery Ranch

An old fashion "shoot-em-up" that shows Fran Striker's development as a writer and novelist. Read in sequence, Striker's style changes and improvement are readily evident as he evolves into the story teller we expect him to be, having read him "from the back side" all these years. The bad guys are still the bad guys, but they begin to take on more complex personalities in this work and are something mroe than flat characters. As with all these old dated Lone Ranger westerns, there are mysteries, twists and turns all along the way, all interesting and amusing. In this one there appears to be a ranch of bad guys, but not all is at it seems and in the end, the Lone Ranger, with the help of his faithful Indian companion Tonto solves it all, much to our expectation and delight. Dated material and writing? Yes, of course. But also affectionately heartwarming and nostalgic, reminding us of ourselves when we believed that such a world of simplistic law, order,truth and justice really existed. These Lone Ranger books are great read in bed before dropping off to sleep at night, "safe and secure" in the knowledge the the ole Lone Ranger and Tonto are still with us, if only in our dreams.

It is easy for the 21st century reader to find fault with the style, phraseology and writng structure of a story written 70 years ago, in 1938, but the value in this book is not the story or the writing style, different though it may abe. The value in this book is memory--and its ability to take the reader to those,if not thriling then certainly more placid and calm, days of yesteryear, when life was simple, when the good guys wore white hats, bad guys wore black, a world of simple rights and simple wrongs, where the good guys won and there was a moral to be learned. Maybe that world never really existed, but we like to think it did. This book, the second in the Lone Ranger series, is so obscure that no one will ever read these words, but in the event someone should happen upon this review, this book will transport you back to those simpler times--and especially to the Meritta Bread sponsored 30-minute Lone Ranger TV show. With every word the Lone Range speaks in these pags, Clayton Moore's voice once again rings across the Plains... Absolute right wins again, evil is vanquished..at least for one week in those days and within the pages of this book for the hour or so it takes to read it.... The William Tell Overture...can you hear it? Listen closely...Close your eyes, think back---and order the book, Kemo Sabe.