The Hell Bent Kid is a 1957 American Western novel by Charles O. Locke. The Hell Bent Kid, is Tot Lohman, the protagonist of the book, a mild mannered teenager but a crack shot with a rifle. Lohman kills a man from the Boyd family, near Twist, Texas, in self defense, and the vicious and numerous Boyd family is set on revenge. Lohman flees to New Mexico Territory to seek his father. The journey, across desert canyon country and pursued by the Boyds, is arduous and dangerous, which mirrors his internal journey of conscience. The Hell Bent Kid was selected by the Western Writers of America as one of the twenty-five best Western novels ever written. It was adapted into the 1958 movieFrom Hell to Texas.
Point-of-view & Structure
The story is mostly told from a first-person point-of-view, that of Tate "Tot" Lohman's. However, the story begins with a "statement" by Henry Restow, a character in the novel, which is chapter 1. Chapter 8 is a letter from Amos Bradley to Henry Restow. Chapter 19 consists of two letters from Restow to Bradley, and one letter from Bradley to Restow. Chapter 20 is a statement by Amos Bradley, which he concludes by quoting a letter by Tot in its entirety.
Characters
;Tate "Tot" Lohman The main character, an eighteen year-old young man. ;Charles Edward Lohman Tot's father, formerly a sheriff, but as the story opens he is in poor health and employed as a cook for a British rancher in Socorro, New Mexico. ;Harley Lohman Tot's older brother. ;Amos Bradley A ranch-owner from Santa Rosa, New Mexico with seven daughters who befriends Tot. ;Juanita "Nita" Bradley One of Amos's daughters. She is adopted. ;Hunter "Old Man" Boyd The patriarch of the Boyd family and the antagonist, or villain, of the story. ;Shorty Boyd One of Hunter's sons, killed by Tot before the novel begins. ;Otis and Tom Boyd Two more of Hunter's sons. ;Hal Carmody Assistant foreman for Hunter Boyd. ;Henry Restow A ranch-owner who employs and has sympathy for Tot. ;Henry Bawbeen A French sheepherder and wolf-trapper. ;Jake Leffertfinger A freighter that Tot had talked to in the town of Twist before the novel begins, a friend of Tot’s. ;Gerard A British ranch-owner of the T Cross T, suspected of cattle-thieving, employs Tot’s father as cook. ;Edward Hoffman Similar size and age as Tot, Ed poses as him en route to Socorro.
