Bitter Sage by Frank Gruber

Bitter Sage (1954) by Frank Gruber

Frank Gruber was a highly prolific writer of pulps and various novels, including many westerns. 25 of his books were made into movies and he created 3 different western TV shows, in addition to writing 65 screenplays and 100 television episodes. I note all of this because reading Bitter Sage is like watching a classic Hollywood western movie from the heyday of the 50s. 

Wes Tancred is one of the best gunslingers in the old west, but he’s running from a violent past and a lie about who he is and what he’s done that has taken on mythic proportions. Following a fateful intervention that sees him gun down 3 would-be thieves, Tancred ends up in Sage City, Kansas, a cattle town owned and lorded over by the crooked mayor, Jacob Fugger. 

Taking a job as a printer at the local newspaper, Tancred is inevitably pulled into a growing war between the upright citizens of Sage City and the forces of Fugger, who starts calling in hired guns to kill anyone who opposes him. All of the classic tropes are here—good guys, bad guys, plenty of action (fistfights and gunplay), a dash of romance (but no sex), and no real profanity—just like those old-school Hollywood westerns. And that’s actually meant as a compliment. 

There may not be anything surprising to be found here, but it is genuinely well written, moves at a great pace, and is never the least bit boring. The book served as the basis for a B-movie adaptation under the name of Tension at Table Rock in 1956. Gruber didn’t write the screenplay which veers pretty significantly from the source novel.

Reviewed by Steve Carroll