User Reviews

The entry gets off to a fast start when Bret is washed ashore on a back-bayou island populated by, you guessed it, a bunch of colorful characters, including daddy Buchanan, tom-boy Howell, belligerent Fuller, and strange O'Brien. So why does Daddy's family keep poor Bret locked-up every so often. Seems like they've got a secret, but what is it.

First part is done with the classic Maverick light touch and humor. However, as the plot thickens, the narrative tone becomes more conventional. On the other hand, the climax furnishes a clever bit of information that produces an amusingly satisfying last scene.

Of course, no one was better at shifty old coots than Buchanan who stretched the crusty character into a memorable career. But, I especially like Howell's coy tom-boy with her feline eyes and purring drawl that manages to charm even in a de-glamorized role. All in all, it's a different kind of story with an original, though overly complex, plot that still manages to entertain.

"Island In The Swamp" is one of my favorites. Bret ends up in bayou country, tied up and set adrift in a boat. Arlene Howell is Ladybird. Erin O'Brien is her sister Victoria. The local boys are suspicious of Bret because they have a secret. They are trading salvaged goods from a wrecked ship. It is Bret's dealings with the girls that interest me. He bargains with Ladybird. If she will untie him, he will show here how to use his cigar as bait by fixing a mixture. He confesses that he cannot teach her to read because he is not a trained teacher. Victoria is a raven-haired beauty whom Bret uses a mirror to gawk at. Being shy, she runs from him. Victoria runs off with a Cajun.

In this Maverick story James Garner gets mugged on a riverboat and the next thing he knows he's floating on the Mississippi in a life raft all bound up. I guess the robbers didn't want to add murder on their criminal resume.

In any event he drifts into a swamp settlement that's fairly isolated and run by Edgar Buchanan playing one of his rapscallion parts. They like him well enough but don't want him to leave or they'll kill him. They're afraid he'll tell of the place and how these swamp dwellers survive. Though for most of the story Garner can't see what these folks are so afraid of being discovered.

He's also got a pair of Buchanan's daughters showing interest in him, Arlene Howell and Erin O'Brien. And they've got jealous boyfriends.

In the end the secret is really no secret and the whole basis of their fears is non-existent and sublimely ridiculous. Once again the Maverick gift of gab saves the situation.