Death at Catspaw Mountain by the late British author Norman Firth (
ISFDB,
SFE) is his vintage standalone western historical action adventure novel, starring a gold prospector returning home to marry his sweetheart, whom he finds out has been murdered in the meantime by rustlers who also murder any who try to pursue their crimes, leaving the present sheriff unwilling to enforce the law until the prospector takes his place in search of justice and revenge, as you do, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press' Pioneering imprint.
This appears to have been originally published in 1947 by Hamish Hamilton under the title
Rustler from Catspaw Mountain using the pseudonym Jeff Prentice (or was reprinted with those credits in 1955) and was later reprinted by Robert Hale with the same as part of their Black Horse Western line in 2000.
Currently free @
Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK and pretty much everywhere else Amazon sells worldwide, since this is being done via their KDP Select exclusive-or-else program)
Description
There’s a new sheriff in town…
When Dave Fraser left the small cattle town of Lobe’s End to seek his fortune as prospector, he always intended to return to marry his childhood sweetheart, Mary Ferguson.
But while he was fortunate enough to make a lucky strike with gold, on his return to his old home town three years later he was met with some bad news…
Mary had been murdered, her bullet-riddled body found on Catspaw Mountain.
Like many other killings within Lobe’s End, Mary’s murder is thought to be linked to an elusive gang of rustlers who have long been victimising the town’s ranches, leaving a trail of thievery and death in their wake.
Also like those before her, Mary’s death has remained unsolved – the subsequent string of murdered sheriffs who attempted to solve the mystery serving as an effective warning that those who try to pin down the perpetrators will suffer one inevitable consequence: death.
Unwilling to suffer the same fate as his predecessors, the town’s present sheriff, Prentiss, happily refrains from enforcing the law, doing nothing to solve these crimes. It seems as though the rustlers will continue to get away with murder…
That is until Fraser, determined to avenge Mary and put an end to the rustling, takes the place of Sheriff. It then becomes clear that the days of the rustlers, as well as incompetent sheriffs, are numbered…