Brush Country

October 31, 2005
Kelton has been writing westerns for nearly 50 years; the keystones of his suspenseful, carefully drawn style can be found in these two early, previously published full-length novels. In Llano River
(1966), cattle tycoon John Titus hires Dundee, a drifting cowboy with a quick temper, to find out who is stealing Titus's cattle. When Dundee rides into an outlaw town filled with rustlers, killers and other undesirables, what he finds leads to murder, revenge and vigilante justice on a large scale. In the aptly titled Barbed Wire
(1957), hapless cowboy Doug Monahan makes a living putting up fences in south Texas—but he also makes a lot of enemies among the big cattle ranchers who don't favor fences. When one of Doug's friends is shot down in cold blood and Doug is burned out of business, he vows revenge. Unintended loss and suffering among some nice folks result, but the baddies misjudge the good guys' resolve. Both novels offer frontier excitement, suspense, a bit of mystery and romance, and plenty of flying fists and fast-shooting six-gun action. Kelton's first books are as good as his most recent work.

January 1, 2006
Kelton racks up Spur Awards like the Yankees win World Series, so this two-for-one reissue of two novels originally published in the 1960s is a real treat for his many fans. In the first tale, " Barbed Wire" , Doug Monahan has taken work stringing barbed wire for small ranchers intent on keeping their herds at home and interlopers out. But Monahan's efforts run contrary to the open-range philosophy of former Confederate officer Andrew Rinehart, owner of the huge R-Cross spread, setting up another version of the big-rancher-versus-homesteader theme that has driven western fiction from Zane Grey to Jack Schaefer and Louis L'Amour. In the second novel, " Llano River" , Dundee, one of Monahan's crew, attempts to find out who's behind the theft of small rancher John Titus' cattle. All signs point to Blue Roan Hardesty, Titus' partner turned rival. Despite being written some four decades ago, both of these character-driven, intelligently plotted tales are quality Kelton, and that means guaranteed good reading for western devotees. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)