20–18297
A story with all the features of the western thriller. Tom Loudon is in love with Kate Saltoun, his employer’s daughter and when he learns that she is engaged to Sam Blakely he throws up his job and leaves. He had long suspected that Blakely is responsible for the frequent disappearances of cattle, but “Old Salt” had refused to believe his neighbor guilty and Kate sides with her father. With Tom’s departure for Paradise Bend Blakely manages to throw the blame on him and he narrowly escapes arrest and lynching. Sudden death lies in wait and is averted in countless other forms before the story closes, with the villains receiving their just deserts and the lovers happy.
Booklist 17:161 Ja ’21
“Nothing in this book distinguishes it from the crops of mediocre western novels which glut the market year after year and which all seem to be made according to a standard recipe.”
− N Y Evening Post p21 O 23 ’20 120w
“What ‘Paradise Bend’ lacks in literary finish and pretensions to intellectual pabulum it replaces with a plenitude of skill in construction and dialogue.”
+ − N Y Times p20 D 5 ’20 430w
WHITEHOUSE, VIRA (BOARMAN) (MRS NORMAN DE R. WHITEHOUSE). Year as a government agent. il *$3 (4c) Harper 940.48
20–2700