Gordon Young (1) (1886–1948)

Red Clark arrives in Tulluco looking for work when he sees two gamblers fleecing a young cowboy of his money by cheating at cards. He steps in and breaks it up making an enemy of the gamblers and their enabler, the town boss, Hamel. Shortly Hamel's men try to ambush Red but he kills and wounds most of the attackers but in the meantime, the young man he saved from bankruptcy is shot from ambush having been mistaken for Red because they both have red hair.

Soon Red discovers that Hamel has set up a conspiracy to have the leading local rancher and power broker, Jerry Monroe, killed and the red haired cowboy who is the rancher's secretly returning prodigal son killed and replaced by an imposter so he can take over the ranch and wealth of Monroe. After some gunfights in which important characters in the narrative are killed, Red sees Hamel hanged for his murderous rampage and other characters renew their old friendships that were destroyed by Hamel's activities.

A quick read although not an entirely satisfying one. Gordon Young was a prolific writer of adventure and western fiction in the early 20th century in the USA. His western fiction was very popular in the UK. He wrote a series of westerns with Red Clark as the hero. This particular title was first published in 1932 and had a UK title of Fighting Fool and may have been the first of the Red Clark series.… (meer)