Texas Showdown: Two Texas Novels
This volume brings together two of Kelton's short novels written in the 1960s, under the blanket association of being vengeance tales of a sort set in Texas.Pecos Crossingfollows two green and mightily frightened cowboys who fall on the wrong side of a famous Ranger and ex-lawman, who hunts them believing them responsible for his wife's shooting.Shotgunfeatures two rival rancher families and a memorable villain who plays one against the other in a bloody-minded plot for revenge. In 1995, the Western Writers of America (responsible for the Spur Award) named Kelton the greatest western writer of all time, ahead of such luminaries as Louis L'Amour, Zane Grey, and Larry McMurtry. While the accolade reeks of hyperbole, such acclaim is hardly unwarranted. Kelton's writing is absolutely authentic, and he is a master at spinning that wildly expressive species of dusty idiom that makes good western writing so gratifying. Add to that some stern, if flexible, morality and tight plotting full of tense, finger-twitching action, and you have some outstanding western fare.Ian ChipmanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved