Published in 1921, The Mysterious Rider was the 26th novel by Zane Grey and became a classic in the Western genre.  The story centers on the character of Columbine, a young woman raised from infancy by rancher Bill Bellounds on his White Slides Ranch in Colorado.  Only at age 19 did Bellounds tell her that he was not her real father. He had raised her as a foster child and expected her to marry his jackass son Jack, a drunkard, gambler, coward, and thief, who is “away” at the time doing some time.  Problem is, she is in love with Wilson Moore, a young ranch hand who loves her back.  Enter the Mysterious Rider, Bent Wade, a kindly middle-aged jack of all trades with a past who happens to be a world class gunfighter known as Hell-Bent Wade.  When Jack returns, he gets crazy jealous when he sees Wilson with Columbine and goes after him with a knife.  Bent Wade rescues Wilson, but all does not end well.  The conflict is followed by revelations and reconciliation.  The book goes beyond the conventions and elements of the Western, which are nevertheless rendered in fine form, to produce a story that wrestles with good and evil, love and duty, and selfishness and self-sacrifice.

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