Growing up, Roy Rogers was one of the cowboy heroes I watched. I liked him better than most of the others. Maybe he was just on more. Long years from that time, my memories aren’t quite clear. I just remember mainly Roy, Dale, and Pat Brady, with his beloved jeep, Nellybelle, on the Roy Rogers show.
So when Evan Lewis on his blog, Davy Crockett's Almanack featured this on a recent Forgotten Books and it was seconded by James Reasoner in the comments, I decided to pick it up. I’d never read any Roy Rogers adventures before. It was a fine western as they had suggested, but unlike anything Roy ever did on screen. The thing about most of the singing cowboy movies and TV was, of course the singing, which Roy didn’t do. But the onscreen stuff usually mixed cowboys on horses, sidearms, and modern day cars(modern for the times of course).
Nevertheless, i liked it evwen though I figured out the identity of the ghost early on. I will likely search out more of them. Four more titles are listed in the back.
For more forgotten books, as always, check in with Patti Abbott over at her blog, Pattinase.
Not The Baseball Pitcher 
Here are the other Roy novels I’m aware of:
Roy Rogers and the Gopher Creek Gunmen
Roy Rogers and the Outlaws of Sundown Valley
Roy Rogers and the Riders of Sawtooth Ridge
Roy Rogers and the Rimrod Renegades
Roy Rogers and the Brasada Bandits
Roy Rogers and the Enchanted Canyon
Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys
Roy Rogers on the Trail of the Zeros
I suppose you could count Roy Rogers and Dale Evans in River of Peril, but it has a girl in it.
Thanks Evan!
Evan is the go-to guy on matters like this! Love the cover!
I’ve never read one of these. Hoppy was always my favorite, along with Red Ryder. Still thise is the second time it’s come up on FFB so I may have to try one.
Hoppy was good. I watched many of the feature length films a few years ago and was impressed how beautifully filmed they were. Red Ryder I remember more from the Sunday Funnies than TV. And then there was Gene, Cisco and Pancho, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Wild Bill and Jingles, and Annie Oakley, among others, but none of them seemed to have the same appeal as Roy and Dale. Maybe it was that Roy Rogers seemed so friendly. You really knew he could be your pal. He will always be King of the Cowboys.
I was dazzled by this one at age 9 or so, leading to a life (mis)spent with mysteries and fantastic fiction. In ’97, as an adult, I found a copy of it at a local bookstore. It’s written a little stagily, there are plot holes big enough to ride Trigger through . . . but it’s got a helluva narrative drive, and the identity of the Ghost, the bandit leader, is a least-likely suspect that Agatha Christie would have approved.
“Enchanted Canyon” is much better. It didn’t impress me when I was 9, but I found a copy and read it last month, and it’s got atmosphere and suspense galore.
“River of Peril,” yeah, I was crazy about that one back then, but I’ve reread it recently and it’s not as well written as “Enchanted Canyon.” “King of the Cowboys” features a neat plot where Trigger is kidnapped, or horse-napped, and Roy has to follow the kidnappers’ trail from rodeo to rodeo in a somewhat modern-seeming Southwest to get him back.
My collection of juvenile westerns has grown in the past couple years –they’re quick to read, a lot of fun, and often contain a surprise or two. They also sometimes offer some perspective on specific character development or writers. Good post!