Ranger's Trail

It's 1874. Rusty, a former Texas Ranger, shelves his plans to reenlist in favor of going after the varmint who murdered his fiancée. But is the right varmint in his sights? What about the bad guy's formidable and unscrupulous family, desperados all? Reading this genre novel, which pushes every button and encompasses every cliché of the Western, is Jonathan Davis. He sounds appropriately shy, folksy, youngish, and Texan, but he can call up the characters and turn on the melodrama with surprising expertise. Perfect listening for the trucker driving late at night on the lonely highway. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

Starred review from August 19, 2002
Seven-time Spur Award–winner Kelton (Way of the Coyote) returns with the fourth installment of his Texas Ranger series, once again offering a wild ride of six-gun justice as former Ranger Rusty Shannon comes to know what it really means to be cold-blooded. Texas in 1874 is still soaked in post-Civil War bitterness: roaming bands of outlaws and family feuds stoke the flames of violence. Rusty now owns a farm in south Texas and hopes to marry sweet Josie Monahan and settle down to raise a family. The Monahans, however, have some trouble. Their youngest daughter has run off to marry a no-good cowboy, one of the sons of the bank-robbing, horse-stealing Bascom family. When she escapes from the Bascoms and returns home, the outlaw clan comes to take her back or silence her forever, but Josie is murdered by mistake. Grief and the need for revenge overwhelm the usually cool Rusty, and he sets out after the wrong man. Aided by his pals Andy Pickard and Len Tanner, he tears across Texas on a manhunt. Andy and Len carry badges, so any murderous, thieving varmints who cross their path are left full of bullet holes, and it's all legal-like. When Rusty finally corners his prey and learns the truth about Josie's killing, an unusual showdown more than evens the score. Kelton is a master storyteller who offers more than just blood and gunsmoke. The right blend of action, drama, romance, humor and suspense makes this a handsome addition to his ongoing saga of the Old West. Agent, Nat Sobel.