The Evil That Men Do by George Victor Martin

The salacious cover art may catch your eye, but this is a Western novel devoid of sexual content. Charles Victor Martin continues the themes of his bestseller Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1940) about life on the American prairie dustbowl after the First World War. Luckily, the deflation of my perverted desires was quickly replaced by the enjoyment of this well-written story of homesteading.

Joe Starck returns from war with an honorable medical discharge after fighting at Dutch Harbor where his buddy Dick was brutally killed beside him. On the train to Montana, he befriends Millie Carr, a young nurse also going to Hinman, just a handful of houses and a red grain elevator down by Milk River. Joe meets Dick Kangas' parents and sees the square mile acreage he bought from Dick, land set aside for when he came home. The Kangas treat him as their own son, giving him a horse and wagon, and helping him build his mail-order home and barn. Raven-haired Millie becomes his wife, and they sow a crop of flax, raise vegetables and animals, but the joy of her pregnancy turns tragic when it is not to be.

Her sister Estelle needs a home and moves in with them. Seen as a runt most of the time, she yearns to be an adult and go to the dances at the newly built community hall. There is talk in the community when she becomes pregnant, still unmarried, so Joe and Millie decide to raise the baby as their own.

"Spoiler Alert" - I have said enough already, but to show how far the cover art of this novel strays, it was heartbreaking when Millie lost her baby, but equally dispiriting to end the book with Estelle becoming paralyzed from the waist down while giving birth on the last page. As if they didn't have enough problems with their poor crop of wheat.

Originally titled Mark It With A Stone, this is similar to George Victor Martin's earlier Our Vines Have Tender Leaves, about Norwegian-American settlers in Wisconsin (filmed in 1945 with Edward G. Robinson and Margaret O'Brien). The writing is enjoyable, but a Western cover would increase my pleasure of reading. Having a bath in the tub (which is in the living room) is as sexy as it gets, with their honeymoon consummation summed up with "he leans in for a kiss... She got a little quieter when it was all over. I did too."

Reprinted editions display covers more ribald as the years went on, and the title changed from Mark It With A Stone to The Lady Says Yes, then randomly The Evil That Men Do.

Charles Victor Martin also wrote the novelization of the hit Ingrid Bergman/Bing Crosby film The Bells of St. Mary's.

1947 / Paperback / 144 pages