Lassiter: Funeral Bend by Jack Slade (Peter McCurtin)

Lassiter: Funeral Bend (1970) by Jack Slade (Peter McCurtin)

The Lassiter series, credited to house name Jack Slade, was written by a variety of authors over the course of numerous books with multiple publishers in the US and across Europe, although deciphering information on actual authors and correctly numbered editions is a bit daunting. Most consensus seems to land on Funeral Bend being the work of action/adventure stalwart, Peter McCurtin. 

We are introduced to our anti-hero, Lassiter, as he arrives in the town of El Dorado, formerly known as Funeral Bend. It’s a violent mining town with no law to speak of and plenty of intermingling immigrants (Welsh, Irish, and Chinese). Lassiter takes out 3 troublemakers in one of the town’s saloons early in the book and is offered a job as marshal, which he takes.

However, we soon learn that Lassiter has a plan to steal the town’s gold reserves through information he gains as the local peacekeeper. He ends up angering the Irish and Welsh factions while currying the favor of the local Chinese Tong leader and ends up in bed with a couple of different women over the course of the slim, large print book. 

The truth is, while competently written, the entire book has a laconic, laid-back pace with no sense of urgency whatsoever; it takes over half of the book before any real plot starts to coalesce. There are a few action scenes, but overall the whole thing feels half-baked and padded with a rushed and unsatisfying climax hurriedly tacked on in the last few pages.

I recently read and reviewed one of McCurtin's Soldier of Fortune titles and found it to be a well-constructed and tightly plotted example of pulpy men's adventure. I realize writers have ups and downs, especially when churning out books as quickly as was demanded by the men's adventure publishing industry of the 70s and 80s, but this Lassiter title, if in fact written by McCurtin, was obviously not one he was really feeling.

Reviewed by Steve Carroll