Pure Justice

Ledbetter borrows generously from historical events to kick life into her fifth western after Deliverance Drive. This yarn, like the last, is chock-full of the author's trademark ingredients--a salt-of-the-earth heroine, colorful old west slang, and plenty of gritty action. When legendary outlaw, John Wesley Hardin, murders Halley Brandt's brothers, the law can't hang him fast enough to suit her. Halley, who ""can ride like a Comanche"" and ""shoot the teats off a lady bug at twenty yards."" Halley hooks up with a pair of Texas Rangers--real-life Lieutenant John B. Armstrong and fictitious ranger Luke Chamberlain--as they travel from Texas to Florida on Hardin's trail. Hardin's eventual capture is dramatized through the intricate meshing of fictional characters and events with their bona fide counterparts--all of which are covered in the author's note at the end. In short, Ledbetter's written another must for discerning western buffs. (May)