VIC: A Dog of the Prairies

Thomas Hinkle seems to prove the adage that ""any book about a dog will sell"". In his case- add ""any book about a horse"", and it proves equally true,- for good, bad, or indifferent, his stories about horses and dogs of the Old West find many readers. His jerky, homespun style and his lack of imagination in plotting situations remains the same. Old Vic, the dog, and his adventures on the prairies, emerge as rather less than interesting or original- to this reader. And the story is heavily weighted with the author's observations on the codes and maxims of the Old West, on customs and place and period. Any reader who has read his earlier stories has read them all; similar situations and dialog and descriptions and stock characters appear in this, as in other books, and they even seem to echo from chapter to chapter. With so much better books in the field, one could venture the wish that this might be the last of an interminable series.