I bought this from a used book store when I was about 8 or 9 years old (about 40 years ago.) And then the book was already old because it was published in 1956. My goal is to do a survey of what mass market (in this case mass Christian market--because it is by Zondervan, a Christian publisher) books of a couple of generations ago were like.
I always wonder if it is hard for Christian authors to know what to do with akward topics--ones you don't normally talk about in Sunday School--like cattle rustling, oil exploration, uranium mining, modernization of ranch management throughh technological innovation such as two-way radios, cowboys and ranchers with guns, and--gasp--murder.
I have consciously stayed away from Christian murder books, because if I want to get one of the highest quality, I will read Dostoyevsky, such as Crime and Punishment or The Brothers Karamazov. But I want to expand my horizons and this is a book that I could use. I checked and there are only 2 books in print at Harper Collins, but lots of mass printing apparently, because there are lots on amazon.
The only mention of God comes about 4 pages before the end. Just before the good guys are going to wup the asses of the bad guys and throw them all in jail, they pray and read some Bible verses. After the bad guys who were trying to swindle a young Mexican-American heiress of a ranch out of her property are thrown in jail, then everyone can live happily ever after. The honest rancher that has an immense fortune can make all of his ranch hands happy because he pays them fairly and they get paid enough to maybe even start up on their own.