Red Runs the River - William Heuman 1952 Gold Medal 216, a Steamboat Western

 

A classic cover from Barye Phillips in pinks, purples and reds adorns the cover of a most excellent Gold Medal western from William Heuman. 

Get a full high-resolution scan here or you can read online or find other formats on my shelf at the Internet Archive here.

I've run into Heuman most often in the sports pulps, but he was prolific in the western pulps, too, and had a long career that included TV writing, non-fiction work, and books for the juvenile market.  While his writing might lack poetry, he was great at setting a scene and telling a good story.

 

Red Runs the River opens with captain Kirby Trent piloting his River Queen up-current on the upper Missouri hoping to be the last boat of the season at Steamboat Bend, the saloon-packed northernmost port on a river with a quickly lowering waterline as Winter approaches.  An encounter with a raiding party of Oglala Sioux quickly establishes the wildness of the region and our captain's sense for tactics.  On reaching Steamboat Bend, Trent is flummoxed to see another packet approaching and vying for the best docking position - and piloted by a woman no less!  But steamer competition might be the least of Trent's worries, as a shadowy combine of racketeers seeks to control all traffic and commerce on the river, and their henchmen are already in Steamboat Bend where all manner of prospectors are waiting for a boat south, their pockets and knapsacks flush with gold dust from the season's diggings.

Trent's not your average western hero, as his heroic virtues don't come from his fists or his revolvers but from his qualities as riverboat captain.  A riverboat captain is constantly vigilant reading the river for all the small clues it gives about the perils beneath the surface just as Trent has to observe all the goings-on and human actors at play in Steamboat Bend to wend his way through the myriad schemes afoot in Steamboat Bend.  And if Trent seems comfortable with the perils about him on the river and raucous saloons, he is equally uncomfortable with his feelings for this stubborn woman owner on the boat docked next to him.  A real page-turner and a great setting for a western - these thin Gold Medals are just like candy to a mid-century maniac like myself, and I give this one a hearty recommendation.  Join the club!