Tascosa Gun: The Story of Jim East

The fourth installment (following Raw hider ) in the Texas Legends series of fictionalized accounts of historical Texans, this novel focuses on Jim East, cowboy and lawman. As an itinerant cowpuncher, East gets engaged to effervescent Hattie Boulding and decides that it's time to get serious about the future. He takes a job at a ranch and rents a small house in Tascosa, renowned as one of the wildest, most wide-open cattle towns in the West. Then he joins a posse to go after Billy the Kid, an episode that occupies a disproportionate place in the story. But in the chase East finds his metier. Fed up with the fumblers, thieves, drunks and assorted riffraff in Tascosa, he runs for sheriff and wins. East not only cleans up the town but averts a major range war in the Texas Panhandle. Shelton has adhered to the known dates, places and sequence of events in East's life, and he portrays actual figures such as Billy the Kid in a manner consonant with the historical record. Told in an engaging style, the story is filled with the details and flavor of the West that fans of the genre hope for. (Dec.)