The Red Ripper

The ornery, pugnacious and legendary William ""Bigfoot"" Wallace, a sometime Texas Ranger and full-time knife-fighter, strides through early 19th-century Texas history in this rangy, fast-moving historical novel. Wallace--""Bigfoot"" to his friends, ""The Red Ripper"" to his many enemies--carves his way across Mexico and Texas, armed with a pair of big knives (he dubs them ""Old Butch"" and ""Bonechucker"") and assisted by an old pirate called Mad Jack. Juan Diego Guadiz, a homicidal Mexican army officer, and his cold-blooded sister, Paloma, have murdered Bigfoot's only brother. Seeking revenge, Bigfoot slices up soldiers, Indians, bandits and anybody else who gets in the way of his cutlery. So far, so violent--but there's a war on, too. It's 1836, and Texas is trying to slice itself right out of Mexico. Bigfoot gets swept up in the conflict, fighting for the Lone Star Republic, and swept off his feet by the beautiful and mysterious Esperanza, who's married to one of Bigfoot's best friends. Though Bigfoot embraces Texas independence, his real nature tells him that ""whiskey and sex were as good a reason as any to start a revolution."" Bolstered by tequila and hoping to skewer Guadiz, Bigfoot finds himself inside the Alamo. But rather than dying with Davey Crockett, Bigfoot escapes, carries a message to Sam Houston and helps the heroic Anglos win the Battle of San Jacinto. Even that patriotic victory, though, cannot still Bigfoot's wanderlust--much less his passion for Esperanza. Newcomb (Call Down Thunder) clearly enjoys retelling, and amending, the historical Bigfoot's adventures, explaining that ""what isn't true, ought to be."" Readers entertained by the action-filled plot, the broad-brush sagebrush scenes and the romance of the Texas Republic will probably not object. (June)