First Trail Drive

Though the temporal setting of Winter's first novel-the years of the American Revolution-is unusual for a western, its other ingredients are more mundane: a few bad Indians (Comanche), one good Indian (Yaqui), a fort full of enemies (British), some good guys (American, Mexican), some bad guys (Mexican), a lot of Texas longhorns, some stunning casual carnage and a plot that just trudges on. Colonial mountain men Ben Cross and his uncle, Ezra, are called to New Orleans to meet with the city's Spanish governor, who asks them to travel to Spanish Texas to collect a herd of wild cattle to feed the troops that Spain, about to ally with the Colonies, will be pitting against British forces in Mississippi. Despite a brush from a hurricane, a flood, legal problems, hostile Indians and a couple of treacherous Mexicans, the Crosses manage to get the cattle to Louisiana. Along the straightforward, plodding way, the pair spout a few anachronisms (``I'll check it out,'' says Ben of a thin column of smoke), while Ben falls for a fiery Texas senorita only to learn that she's been lost at sea. Not one to give up easily, he proclaims, ``She's out there somewhere 'n I mean to find her''-clear warning of a sequel that, hopefully, will outclass this offering, suited for die-hard genre fans only. (Nov.)