Cattle King for a Day by L. Ron Hubbard

By Shawn

Chinook Shannon shows up to collect his inheritance, only to find that if he doesn't come up with an insanely huge amount of money within 24 hours, he'll have lost it already.  With some gunslinger action and some good old-fashioned sleuthing, will Shannon be able to be the cattle rancher he's always dreamed of being?

We have a whole mess of crooked people here!  In typical Hubbard fashion, we have one character that really stands out amid a sea of old western craziness.  I have to admit, of all his westerns, I found this one to contain the most humor.  Chinook is tough and no-nonsense, but he does so in such a fashion that you can't help but giggle at him.  Of course, I wouldn't dare do that to his face, but since he's a character in a book and he won't see me do it, I think I'm pretty safe.

The story was actually pretty intricate. We get the pressing desperation over Chinook's situation, and we want desperately to help him in any way we can.  Oh the injustice of it all!  Then we start finding 'bad guys' everywhere!  Some are in pretty surprising places, the cowards!

This is a typical Hubbard western, but this one is memorable to me mostly because of the advanced storyline as well as the added depth of characters, versus some of his other books.