The cover of Death in Buzzards’ Gulch came, quite literally, from a rubbish skip.

John Kelly spotted a discarded Wild West potboiler among the debris and decided its colourful cover would, with a few modifications, fit the bill nicely.

‘Quite what I was doing looking through skips, I don’t recall,’ says John. ‘I had a designer called Jan Treadgold tweak it so we wouldn’t be done for copyright breach, and wrote some nonsense copy to further confuse. It still confuses today…’

Out at Purple Gulch, Sheriff Don McGill is having plenty of trouble with rustlers, so Rusty Malone and Hank Halliday ride out to lend a hand. The little township is alive with the news of more rustling, and town lawyer Jeff Palmer has little doubt that behind the trouble is a gentleman called Clay Mason. Jeff also has a mighty pretty daughter, Sue.

Life is cheap in Purple Gulch, and the latest victim is identified as Sheriff McGill himself. Mr. Clay Mason loses little time in getting himself appointed sheriff, and, strange to say, the new sheriff finds he can get along without Rusty and Hank, but when the boys linger around they find themselves framed for hold-ups and murder, and any other little thing which happens around the town.

When Rusty discovers that Mr. Mason wants to unsettle his neighbours with a view to buying up land in the gold-bearing valley the reason for the sudden outbreak of rustling is less obscure.

But there’s a whole lot more behind the trouble than the greed of Clay Mason, as Rusty and Hank learn before they are much older.