Black Mesa by Zane Grey (1955)

This past summer between a move from one Asian country to another, I was able to take the family back to the US to visit family, preach at churches, and prepare for yet another major life transition. Because we spent some of that time in Utah, I thought it would be a good season in life to begin reading Westerns.

While I began with (and love) the old family standby, Louis L’Amour, I also wanted to try some of the other big names out there. In fact, I’ve got on my Singaporean shelf now books by Zane Grey, Max Brand, William W. Johnstone, as well as some lesser-known authors like Mike Blakely and Orlando Rigoni. I may never get to them all, but I’ve enjoyed my foray into the Western novel thus far.

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Quick Summary of Black Mesa

After getting jilted by his fiancée, Kansan tenderfoot Paul Manning finds himself in Bitter Seeps, Arizona, near the Colorado River with his buddy Wess Kintell, hoping to start a cattle ranch and a whole new life. They purchase a herd from John Belmont, a kingly sort of brute who owns a trading post among Navajos with his 17-year-old wife Louise and his “Sister”.

Belmont tends to betray Manning and Kintell every chance he gets, but Manning has other reasons for hating the man. He’s got eyes for the mistreated Louise and her sickly baby, and he just knows something ain’t right about their marriage. The climaxes of the book surround Manning’s attempts to outsmart Belmont and rescue the poor girl.

Another Anti-Mormon Book?

I recall the love-hate relationship Zane Grey seemed to have with Mormonism in Riders of the Purple Sage, and I get a sense of that here in this posthumous publication as well, though it’s more downplayed. Even though the book barely mentions Mormonism, the allusions are clear—marriages in Utah, the curious “Sister”, and the implications of polygamy.

Of the Westerns I’ve read so far, Zane Grey is two-for-two with anti-Mormonism, while I don’t think any of the other books even mention the cult. I find this odd, and his apparent fixation is why I’m not hankering to read another Grey novel. There are so many other great authors out there to try.

Romance Novels for Dudes

While he rightly writes against polygamy, Grey tends to skirt his own moral boundaries in other ways. In this novel, for example, not only is Paul Manning hankering after another man’s wife, but the girl he’s wanting is only 17 years old. That’s apparently a non-issue for Zane Grey, since Paul’s buddy Wess has him beat, as he tries to woo the 16-year-old native girl Natasha from Walibu!

Sure, times have changed since the 1950s, but I’m surprised that lust and near-adultery didn’t brand Zane Grey as something other than “the greatest storyteller of the American West.” The melodrama and romantic jealousies in this book also make this story feel like a Spanish soap opera for men, and it just is not my kind of book.

Conclusion

I’ve still got two more Zane Grey novels on my bookshelf here in Singapore, but I’m not likely to read them. Instead, I’ll trade them off for something better next chance I get.

He’s a great writer, sure, just not an author I want to read again.

©2026 E.T.

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