Ranger's Trail

January 1, 2012
In this Christian western, fourth in the Texas Trails series, Leta Derrick seeks justice in the wake of her husband's lynching. Franklin's story is drawn from a central Texas range war known both as the Hoo Doo War and the Mason County War, and she's faithful to what's known. German American ranchers fought the original, mostly Anglo, settlers over who was rustling cattle and who exacted frontier justice afterward. Leta knows Germans killed her innocent husband, but her love interest is Texas Ranger Buck Morgan, a German American from southeast Texas. He'll help her rein in her wayward son, Andy, who's riding with the notorious renegade ranger, Scott Cooley. However, Cooley's actionsand the war itselfmostly occur offstage, Buck is impossibly nice, and Leta is unrelentingly brave and long-suffering. Certain sequences, such as Buck's gentle breaking of a colt for Leta's younger son, stand out, but veteran western readers will tire of Leta's Bible reading and prayingnot to mention her endless cooking. On the other hand, Christian-romance readers will be satisfied.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)