Appreciation post: That $1 western novel that seriously surprised me

I picked up a beat-up paperback called 'The Mustang Riders' for a dollar at a garage sale in Omaha back in June. Honestly I thought it would be some cheesy cowboy story with cardboard characters and predictable shootouts. The cover looked like it was drawn by someone who never saw a horse in real life. But I was stuck waiting for my car to get an oil change so I cracked it open. The writing was way more gritty and real than I expected. The main character actually had doubts and made mistakes that cost him. By page 50 I was totally hooked and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. It made me wonder how many other cheap old paperbacks I've passed up that could be hidden gems. Has anyone else found a random dollar book that turned out to be way better than you thought?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant_ross271mo ago

Is that the one with the terrible ending where the horse dies for no reason, @alice991?

alice9911mo ago

Wait, did we read the same book? I grabbed that same copy off a pile at a flea market in Des Moines and thought it was just about the worst thing I've ever read.