Elmer Kelton - Texas Rangers Series #1-6 (Westerns) ePUB+MOBI

“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.”—Elmer Kelton

This is a story of the early days when...

An intense, red-haired young man named Rusty Shannon rides into Fort Belknap on the Brazos River and joins the Texas Rangers. Years before, Mike Shannon rescued Rusty from a Comanche war party and became his adoptive father. Not long ago, Mike Shannon, was bushwhacked and killed, and his death still haunts Rusty. Rusty thinks he knows the identity of Mike’s killers. But with Texas now in the throes of seceding from the Union, Rusty has his hands full fighting for the law in lawless Texas and for the life of the woman he loves. If that were not enough of a burden, Rusty is also heading for a showdown with the Comanche warrior who killed his family over twenty years ago.



The Texas Frontier, 1865

The Civil War is over and Texas is reluctantly yielding to the Union soldiers spreading across the state, even into the dangerous Comanche country. David "Rusty" Shannon, proud member of a "ranging company" attempting to protect Texas settlers from Indian depredations, finds that the rangers are being disbanded. He makes his way home to his land on the Red River, hoping to take up the life of a farmer and the hand of the beloved girl he left behind, Geneva Monahan.

But Geneva has married in Rusty's long absence and the country is filled with hostiles—not just Indians, but hate-filled Confederates, overbearing Union soldiers, and army renegades. Rusty's youth as a captive of the Comanches returns to haunt him when, in pursuit of Indian raiders, he takes as prisoner Badger Boy, a white child taken from his murdered parents by a Comanche warrior.



The Civil War has ended, and Union soldiers and federal officials have taken control of Texas as Rusty Shannon rides to his home on the Colorado River. As a child he was a captive of the Comanche, as a young man a proud member of a ranging company protecting settlers from Indian raids. Shannon's fate is intertwined with the young man accompanying him: Andy Pickard, himself but recently rescued from Comanche captivity and known by his captors as Badger Boy. Texas is in turmoil, overrun with murderous outlaws, lawmen exacting penalties from suspected former Confederates, nightriders, and the ever-dangerous Comanche bands. In this tempestuous time and place, Rusty tries desperately to resume his prewar life. His friend Shanty, a freed slave, is burned out of his home by the Ku Klux Klan; his own homestead is confiscated by his special nemesis, the murderous Oldham brothers; and the son of a girl he once loved is kidnapped by Comanches. Elmer Kelton, a master of novelist of the American West, literature, has crafted a satisfying and remarkably accurate tale of Texas life at the end of the Civil War.

Elmer Kelton, most honored of all Western writers, writes of the formative years of the Texas Rangers with the knowledge of a native Texan and the skill of a master storyteller. In Rusty Shannon, tough and smart—necessary survival attributes on the 1860s Texas frontier—Kelton has created one of the most memorable characters in modern Western fiction.



Rusty Shannon was a Texas Ranger before the war. Now, almost 10 years after Appomatox, the Rangers are being reorganized. Shannon would love to re-up, but he has another matter on his plate: settle the score with Corey Basom, who murdered Shannon's beloved Josie. Complicating his plans for revenge is Josie's younger sister, Alice, who married Bascom before she knew his true nature and whose estrangement from the outlaw precipitated Josie's death. The vengeance trail leads to a deadly confrontation in which Shannon realizes he's not a cold-blooded killer, regardless of circumstance, and Bascom reveals an integrity few thought he possessed. Kelton, whose seven Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America is a record for that honor, expands on his reputation with a thoughtful, realistic portrayal of the West in which carefully drawn characters--not gunplay--drives the action. If there's an heir to the Louis L'Amour legacy, it's Kelton. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved



It's a Texas blood feud. The Landons and the Hoppers have been killing each other for generations, and no one remembers the root cause. Andy Pickard, a young Texas Ranger who was raised by Comanches, and Farley Brackett, his grizzled, cynical partner, are assigned to return Jayce Landon to a nearby county to faces charges of killing Ned Hopper. Soon the two find themselves trying to keep the Landons from busting their kin out of jail and the Hoppers from busting into the jail to kill the prisoner. Meanwhile, Pickard's mentor and surrogate father, having lost his crops to a hailstorm, joins the Rangers and helps quell the feud. Kelton, designated by the Western Writers of America as "The Greatest Western Writer of All Time," is at the top of his craft for this fifth entry in his Texas Rangers series. Within the exciting context of a western adventure, he explores paternal relationships--good and bad--and the crippling consequences of hanging on too tightly to a painful past. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved



Starred Review Lupe Chavez hates gringos. Jericho Jackson hates Mexicans. Each has a ranch close to the Mexico-U.S. border. Both ranches' crews spend a significant portion of their time rustling each other's cattle and spiriting them across the border. Young Texas Ranger Andy Pickard is assigned, along with partners Farley Brackett and Len Tanner, to a Ranger outfit charged with ending border violations. Andy was taken by Comanches in a raid as an infant and raised by them until he was a young teen. He's keenly aware of the danger posed by bigots in any dispute, especially one defined in part by ethnic differences. Brackett, a former Confederate soldier, is an outspoken bigot himself and never misses a chance to disparage a Mexican. It seems like a lose-lose situation with Andy and his partners caught in the middle, but if there is a way to end the conflict with a minimum of bloodshed, Andy is determined to find it. The sixth book in Kelton's wonderful Texas Ranger series, about the development of the Lone Star State during the turbulent 1800s, deftly uses characters from past entries while constantly folding in new personalities. This is arguably the best ongoing western series in the genre today. It shouldn't be missed. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved