William S. Hart was one of the pioneers of western films — and, as a fan of westerns, author J.R. Sanders says that’s one of the reasons his latest novel is about Hart and also why it’s set in the Santa Clarita Valley.  Sanders’ new book, “A Killing Way,” is a love letter to Hart and to movie westerns made in the SCV.  “I read a biography of Hart,” Sanders said in an interview, “and it’s always bugged me, as a western movie fan, that every few years, some critic or producer, director or somebody will come out with the statement, ‘Oh, the western’s dead. Its day is done. They’re never going to be western films again. It’s outdated. It’s archaic.’ I read that, in 1914, when Hart approached Thomas Ince to bankroll his start in western films, that’s what Ince told him: ‘Nobody cares about western anymore. They’re done.’”  Sanders, a longtime resident of Yucaipa and lover of SCV history, is certainly not done with westerns. “A Killing Way” is the fourth novel in Sanders’ Nate Ross series. It features a fictionalized account of an elderly and retired William S. Hart who, in 1939, hires private investigator Ross to recover a prized and priceless painting that was stolen from Hart’s Newhall ranch home.   J.R. Sanders’ new book, “A Killing Way,” is a fictious tale of thievery and murder revolving around an elderly and retired William S. Hart, which includes many notable Santa Clarita Valley locations, including Hart’s Ranch. Art courtesy of J.R. Sanders Sanders said that the missing painting is a fictional element of his story. However, unbeknownst to him at the time he wrote his latest novel, there was a case of a missing Hart painting.  During the “Silents Under the Stars” event earlier this month at William S. Hart Park in Newhall, Leon Worden, vice president of the Friends of Hart Park board of directors, talked about an oil-on-canvas painting of Hart’s famous red pinto, Fritz, that had gone missing after Hart’s death in 1946. Worden tracked the painting down, and in 2018, he purchased it and brought it back to the Hart property for public viewing for the first time in almost 80 years.   In Sanders’ work of fiction, his private investigator searches for a missing piece of artwork and finds himself in a high-stakes feud between B-movie cowboys and a cowgirl, and in a race against a ruthless killer who’s trying to get his hands on the painting first.   Notable SCV locations in the book, which Sanders researched carefully, include Hart’s Horseshoe Ranch and the Monogram movie ranch (known today as Melody Ranch) in Newhall, and the Oak of the Golden Dream property in Placerita Canyon.  “The first book in the series kind of dealt with the B-movie cowboys and had this whole sort of old West/wild West backstory, just because that’s something I’m interested in,” Sanders said. “I grew up watching western movies and TV shows, and I came from the Midwest, and my dad was a wild West buff, so that part of it’s just sort of in my blood.”  The author drew inspiration from the old Republic Pictures’ westerns like “Rio Grande” (1950) with John Wayne, the TV westerns from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s like “Bonanza” and “Gunsmoke,” and the many film and TV productions shot in Newhall and at Vasquez Rocks.  But Sanders’ book is also inspired by the noir and pulp novels he devoured over the years from the likes of authors like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.   “I read those sorts of books since I was a kid,” he said. “My mom would’ve been horrified at some of the stuff I was reading when I was younger. I used to swipe my brother’s Mike Shayne mysteries and read them when nobody was looking. I started off as a non-fiction writer, but when I took to writing novels, that was just naturally sort of what I gravitated to — the old ’30s, ’40s crime stories, the noir element. And with that first book, I salted in the wild West element as well because it was fun for me, and it just seemed appropriate with those B-westerns being such a prominent thing in L.A. and Hollywood.”  Having spent much time at Hart Park over the years, Sanders said he was thrilled to finally place a story there.   “My wife actually suggested the William S. Hart angle,” he said. “We’d been up to Hart Park many times, along with the Hart mansion, and we’re pretty familiar with it. I’ve always found Hart kind of a fascinating character anyway.”  For more information about Sanders and his book “A Killing Way,” go to the author’s website at JRSanders.com.  The post Novel features William S. Hart and SCV’s western movie scene  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.