In a cloud of gun smoke and hot lead, the Texas Rangers once again blast their way across 1870s Texas in this fifth volume of Kelton's series about frontier lawmen eager to dish out six-gun justice. Following last year's Ranger's Trail
, this latest installment finds the Rangers in the middle of a bloody family feud between the Landon and Hopper clans. Rangers Andy Pickard and Farley Brackett are assigned to transport a killer to a county court for trial and hanging, when this easy task turns into a deadly game of escape, ambush and murder. The prisoner, Jayce Landon, killed a Hopper family member in a longstanding feud between the two families. Now one family wants to free Jayce, the other wants to kill him and the Rangers are targets for both sides. Andy is young, still learning about being a lawman and eager to prove himself. Farley is a former outlaw, proud that every man he killed deserved it. The two barely get along as partners, but in a fight they make a good team. When their prisoner escapes, the two Rangers find themselves in a complex and curious situation, uncertain who to arrest and who to shoot. Former Ranger Rusty Shannon returns to help, and together the three lawmen discover that the facts are all wrong, while stacking up dead bushwhackers and getting shot to pieces themselves. Add a fatherly bank robber with a conscience, a willful wife, some plot twists and fancy gunplay, and seven time Spur Award–winner Kelton delivers another terrific western. (Feb.)
