Fred Grove (1913–2008)

The Vanishing Raiders by Fred Grove is a collection of 8 short and 1 novella length western stories. A few of the short stories take place in the 1920’s in Osage Country, Oklahoma, which was where oil had been found on the Indian reservations and then drew many greedy, lawless men out to try to steal or cheat the profits away from the Indians. Grove himself was part Indian and grew up Fairfax, Oklahoma and much of what he writes about here was from his memories of that time.

The Vanishing Raiders is a quick read and covers an interesting time period. The 1920s were a bridge from the days of the wild west to the beginnings of modern day law and order. These stories often deal with relations between the Indians and the whites with issues of trust, prejudice and the importance of standing up for what is right. My favorite was the novella length story that is a coming-of-age story about a young man who comes out west to work for his uncle only to find his uncle isn’t the upstanding honest man that he makes out to be. As in all short story collections, I preferred some of the stories over others but they were all well written and the stories felt authentic and real.… (mehr)