The Mysterious Rider

The Mysterious Rider perhaps would have been better titled, Beauty and the Beast, and I am not in any way being disparaging. Zane Grey used the same type of plot lines for many of his books, and then added an extra character to bring the book to its logical conclusion. A young girl, the adopted daughter of a wealthy rancher, is forced to marry the rancher's no-good, drunk of a son, while the young girl loves another cowboy as different from the son as could possibly be--a similar scenario is found in Heritage of the Desert. But here a "mysterious stranger" is on the scene to make things right. And we can all guess who this "mysterious stranger" is, can't we? If you can't guess, I'm not going to tell you and ruin the book. Still, having said that, this book is a good Zane Grey romance told as only the master of historical romance could tell it, and worth reading--even more than once.

Bill Bellounds made his fortune getting in on the cheap land early. he went on to raise agricultural products for the city folks. But his son Buster Jack has really bad ADHD. Hell Bent Wade tries talking sense into Buster Jack, but Buster Jack ain't hearing it! Hell Bent Wade ain't one for whuppin' on dogs, but he will smack them down when they bite and steal. Columbine is his long lost daughter. He won't let her marry Buster Jack, but he cares about everyones emotions.

I found this little gem at a yard sale in southern Oklahoma. It is an earlier Zane Grey work (1921 copyright) but it is well worth the reading. This little green hardback gave me a good contrast between what was written as western fiction then, and what is written now. The title is somewhat misleading in that the mysterious rider is not who you would think it would be. I would highly recommend it for the younger generation, boys or girls.

Rancher Bill Belllounds had brought up Columbine as though she were his daughter. Out of affection for her foster father, Columbine had agreed to marry Bill's son., Jack-a drunkard, gambler, coward, and thief. But the man she really loved was cowboy Wilson Moore, and he was everything Belllound's son should have been. Then the strange, clairvoyant little man they called Hell-Bent Wade came to work at the ranch. "You can believe me when I say somethin' will happen," he declared prophetically. "Columbine isn't goin' to marry Jack Belllound's."I loved to read the dialogue, Zane Grey's books may be a little dated to the time period when he wrote them, but it's still a good book.

On the surface, this book could be considered dull. But what one must realize, is the era in which this book was written, in the 1920's. For lack of a better way to say it, people, especially children, did not get out much back then. They needed to escape, and thinking of the wild west, was a good a way as any. I found the book very enjoyable. The book is not for children, if for no other reason, it it is not written for them, more for young adults. If you want to read a western about shootouts, and that sort of thing, then this is not your book. But for a good, descriptive drama, that grabs you and makes the pages turn, then this is the book for you.