Would love to know Bev Vincent's opinion on the story, but I could understand him not wanting to reply to such a request. He might want to write about it later, but I would just like either confirmation or denial of the following line of thought: this just wasn't King at his finest (and he is, and always will be, a fine writer, this story notwithstanding).
I liked it a lot--I've always particularly enjoy King's crime fiction, regardless of the era its set in.
I happen to be reading another Western at the moment (Bill Crider's Texas Vigilante), so this story nestled comfortably with that other work, silver dollars and all. And I have to say that I was
suckered. When the sheriff believed Trusdale was innocent, so did I--I was already inclined to think that beforehand. I kept waiting for the sheriff to discover who the real killer was, either at the last possible moment or, worse, immediately after the hanging. I didn't want the real killer to get away, so it was quite disturbing to discover that Trusdale was every bit as evil as the people in town believed he was.