Showing results by author "Elmer Kelton" in All Categories

Irishman Doug Monahan runs a fencing crew outside the south Texas town of Twin Wells, digging post-holes and stringing red painted barbed wire for ranchers as protection against wandering stock, rustlers and land hungry thugs. Monahan's fencing operation is opposed by Captain Andrew Rinehart, a former Confederate officer and an old-school open range baron of the huge R Cross spread. With his brutal foreman, Archer Spann, assigned to the violent work, Rinehart wages a barbed wire war against Doug Monahan. And neither side takes prisoners!

The Buckskin Line tells of Texas' chaotic early years, when a ragtag group of irregular volunteers fought to defend the far edges of settlement from incursion by Indians and frontier outlaws. In time, they would become known as the Texas Rangers.

In Hard Trail to Follow, by seven-time Spur Award winner Elmer Kelton, young Texas Ranger Andy Pickard vows to track down the bank robber he thinks killed his friend and mentor. But as he traverses the rugged terrain, Andy's perplexed at the glowing reports of the felon's kindness and integrity.

Before he set down his pen, seven-time Spur Award winner Elmer Kelton—the Western Writers of America’s “Best Western Writer of All Time”—cut 50 notches on his gunbelt of classics. In this final novel of the Texas Rangers, a young lawman finds his mettle put to the test while bringing justice to a remote settlement. To stop a series of baffling killings and thefts, newly married ranger Andy Pickard is dispatched to a central Texas community where locals are quick to pin the crimes on two feuding cattlemen.

In Other Men’s Horses, a young 1880s Texas Ranger must track down a fugitive who gunned down a notorious horse thief. Reaching the West Texas town where Donley Bannister was last spotted, Ranger Andy Pickard follows Bannister’s trail across treacherous, unforgiving terrain. But when outlaws ambush Pickard, Bannister risks his life to rescue his pursuer—instead of high-tailing it in the opposite direction—and provides life-saving medical care.

David "Rusty" Shannon is the member of a "ranging company" attempting to protect Texas settlers from Comanche depredations. He learns that the rangers are being disbanded. He makes his way home to his farm on the Colorado River, and discovers that the land around his home is filled with hostiles — Indians, Confederates, and conscription-dodging renegades.

When Comanches slaughter his parents in 1855 West Texas, eight-year-old Jeff buries their scalped bodies—and the charred remains of his younger brother. Taken in by a homesteading family, Jeff ekes out an existence. But as he dons Confederate gray, he never dreams his brother is alive—or that he’s wearing Union blue.

In post-Civil War Texas, Andy Pickard, once known to his Comanche "family" as Badger Boy, is now in his mid-20s and riding with the Texas Rangers. While delivering a prisoner for trial, he becomes entangled in a feud between the Landon and Hopper families. Andy works to help Jayce Landon, while at the same time keeping the boy Scooter Tennyson from being pulled into a life of crime. Lives are at stake, loyalties tested, and the worst aspects of human nature are exposed, in Texas Vendetta.

Rusty Shannon has left the Rangers and feels the need to settle down. He has brought up Andy Pickard, once a captive of the Comanches, now in his 20s and eager to see more of the world. Rusty's dream of marrying Josie Monahan and living the life of a farmer seems like paradise, compared to the Civil War and the evils of Reconstruction. His dreams and plans, and the lives of the Monahans, are shattered by tragedy, and Rusty seeks revenge. By his side are Andy and an old friend from Ranger days, Len Tanner.

Young Andy Pickard, known among the Comanches as Badger Boy, is now a teenager, and has been learning to live with the Texans from whom he was stolen years before. His divided loyalties between the Comanches and the whites lead to another kidnapping. Five-year-old Billy Gifford is taken by a warrior named Fights With Bears. Andy must save his honor by trying to recover Billy.

Ranger Andy Pickard is assigned to the Texas-Mexico border, along with Len Tanner and Farley Brackett, to help stop rival cattle barons, Texan Jericho Jackson and Mexicano Guadalupe Chavez, who rob each other, and any ranchers in their path, driving the stolen animals across the border. Caught in the crossfire is rancher Big Jim McCawley and his family. A showdown is looming, and the only hope for avoiding bloodshed is the Texas Rangers.

A Comanche war party raids settlements and steals horses. A young warrior named Buffalo Caller kills a young couple, then abducts their red-haired little boy. The boy is rescued by a volunteer defender of the white settlers named Mike Shannon, who raises the boy as his own and calls him Rusty.

Donley Bannister shot and killed Cletus Slocum for stealing and crippling one of his best horses. He ran, leaving his wife Geneva behind. She sets off to find him, with Ranger Andy Pickard on her trail, hoping she’ll lead him to Donley. Cletus’ brothers are on the road, too, seeking revenge. Along the way, Andy discovers that the innocent and devoted Geneva may have made the mistake of marrying the wrong man, and that her husband may be a moral man in some ways, but he has no difficulty with taking other men’s horses.

When former cattle man Dundee wanders into the town of Titusville, he's broke, tired and itching for a fight. Instead, he gets a job offer...from none other than the top man in town, John Titus. Titus recruits Dundee to find out who's rustling his extensive herd of cattle. But for Titus, it isn't enough that Dundee find the missing cattle. He wants to place the blame on a specific person...Blue Roan Hardesty, a one-time friend turned sworn enemy of the powerful Titus clan. All Titus needs is hard proof and Dundee is just the man to get it.

Mordecai Lewis and his son Michael lead men from Tennessee into Spanish-ruled Texas, to hunt wild horses. The trip is fatal for Mordecai, leaving Michael and his family in danger, both from the soldiers of Spain and the evil Blackwood family back home in the Tennessee hills.

Joshua Buckalew has left behind the deserted battlefields that claimed his brother Thomas. The war has cost him much, but it has also given him a strong bond to the land and to the Mexican families who stood with him against the tyrannies of Santa Anna. Josh is travelling with Ramon Hernandez his best friend and the man who had fought with him, side by side. Where they are going, he isn't quite sure.

For Gage Jameson, the summer of 1873 has been a poor hunt. A year ago he felled 62 buffalo in one stand, but now the great Arkansas River herd is gone, like the Republican herd before it. In Dodge City, old hide hunters speak is awe of a last great heard to the south - but no hunter who values his scalp dares ride south of the Cimarron and into Comanche territory. None but Gage Jameson....

For decades, Charlie Flagg has eked out a living by raising cattle and sheep on his modest Texas ranch. Hardworking and old-fashioned, he distrusts federal programs that claim to help struggling farmers and ranchers. But as rainless years continue and others sell their souls for federal handouts, Charlie finds himself under increasing pressure to compromise his principles - and surrender his freedom.

Nearly 70, Wes Hendricks has led a tough and colorful life as a cowboy and broncobuster, and all he asks now is that he be left alone on his poor, hardscrabble ranch in the West Texas hill country. Not a chance - the powers that be in the little town of Big River (including Wes' old cowboy pal, druggist/Mayor Orville Levitt) have decreed that an artificial lake will be created to generate tourism, and Wes' ranch stands squarely in their way.

In the 1870s, buffalo hunters moved onto the High Plains of Texas. The Plains Indians watched hunters slaughter the animals that gave them shelter and clothing, food, and weapons. The battles at and near the ruins of a trading fort, Adobe Walls, became symbolic of the struggles between hunters and the Comanche.