Review: Classic Western at its finest!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 9, 2013
It has been a long time since I have read a good old fashioned Western.  You know the kind, where the bad guys are really bad and the good guys are...well, really bad too!Van Holt's “The Last of the Fighting Farrell's” is a Western in the style of Louis L'Amour.  The women are strong, the men are stronger.  The characters are well defined, down to the most minor of 'walk on' characters in town.The Farrells and the Haggans have been feuding in western Texas for as long as anyone can remember.  Old Matt Farrell was killed by the Haggans at the ripe old age of 30, but not before he had managed to shoot the leg off of old Pegleg Haggan.For a long time, there has been no one to stand in the way of the Haggan's boys, or their cousins, the Keelers. No one is safe from them.  And no one has the courage to stand up to them. It has been awhile since there has been any fighting between the Haggans and the Farrells, although the Haggan's boys have been rustling cattle and stealing horses from the Farrells all along.When Martha Keeler leaves her family to marry young Matt Farrell, it causes the bad blood between the families to boil up again.  Now that old Pegleg is older, his boys do whatever they please.  Including ambushing young Matt Farrell and starting the old blood feud again.This book was just fun!  The story line was classic, yet told in such a way that for awhile you are unsure as to who the last of the Fighting Farrells was going to be.  The emotional conflicts are handled in true Western style, as almost an aside, and yet woven artfully into the story.I am recommending Van Holt to all of my Western loving friends.