The Gun Fight

March 29, 1993
In the prologue to this page-turning new novel by the author of Journal of the Gun Years , aging Texas Ranger John Benton hangs up his guns after killing a bank robber who's barely more than a child. Eight years later, in 1879, Benton has settled down as a rancher outside the town of Kellville, whose inhabitants treat him as a popular hero, a symbol of the romantic, vanishing frontier. This hero-worship turns ugly after an adolescent girl tells her fiance, Robby Coles, of her daydreams about the former lawman. Mistaking fantasy for reality, Coles attacks Benton, precipitating the events that lead to the disastrous climax implied in the title. Rumors of an affair between Benton and the girl circulate, becoming more inflated with each telling. Goaded by an imperious and manipulative father, Coles continues to challenge Benton, shattering the peace of the town and the lives of its inhabitants. Matheson tells his story in taut, cinematic style, and his characters speak in twangy period argot without sounding forced or phony. This is an absorbing parable about the terrible effects of gossip and the tragedy of a peaceable man driven to violence.