Badger Boy (Texas Rangers Series #2) » (1 MASS MKT)

Elmer Kelton, author of more than forty novels, grew up on a ranch near Crane, Texas, and earned a journalism degree from the University of Texas. His first novel, Hot Iron, was published in 1956. For forty-two years he had a parallel career in agricultural journalism.

Among his awards have been seven Spurs from Western Writers of America and four Western Heritage awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Among his best-known works have been The Time It Never Rained and The Good Old Boys, the latter made into a television film starring Tommy Lee Jones.

He served in the infantry in World War II. He and his wife, Ann, a native of Austria, live in San Angelo, Texas. They have three children, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

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.

“Award-winning writer Elmer Kelton—a star in the shrinking Western genre—totes you effortlessly to the post-Civil War Texas frontier, where white settlers were just learning to live with freed slaves, Comanches and each other . . . . His characters, like Shannon, make mistakes, are far from perfect and take life in stride.”—The New York Post

“Kelton is a master of both plot and character development, and his Rusty Shannon is a down-to-earth, dusty cowboy whose exploits always thrill Kelton’s fans.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Publishers Weekly

The indefatigable Kelton cranks out yet another rousing western, his ninth novel under the Forge Books brand, with this continuation of the saga of the Texas Rangers and his redheaded hero, Rusty Shannon. In 1865, the Civil War is just about over and the Confederacy is collapsing everywhere. Only small, undermanned ranger companies protect the Texas frontier from marauding bands of Comanche warriors, and army deserters, outlaws and Yankee soldiers add to the troubles of a desperate population. When Rusty leaves the rangers to return to his farm, he finds that his sweetheart has married somebody else. Racial tension between rednecks and freed slaves boils over, and old enemies return to settle scores. Rusty faces a new dilemma when he captures a white youngster, called Badger Boy by the Comanches who had seized him as a baby and raised him. Rusty himself is an orphan once captured by the Comanches. Observing Badger Boy, he begins to understand a great deal about his own past and what it means to his future. Since Rusty's debut in The Buckskin Line (1999), he has grown from a na ve kid into a responsible leader of rangers, a savvy frontiersman who is as tough as a boiled owl and smart as a fox. Running gunfights with Indians, outlaw ambushes and showdowns with horse thieves and renegade murderers liven up this polished and tightly wrapped yarn of duty, honor, courage and gunsmoke. Kelton is a master of both plot and character development, and his Rusty Shannon is a down-to-earth, dusty cowboy whose exploits always thrill Kelton's fans. Regional author tour. (Jan.) Forecast: In his niche, Kelton is the tops. He's been voted the Greatest Western Writer of All Time by the Western Writers of America, and is a six-time winner of the Spur Award. If booksellers emphasize his stature in the field, this standout title could be one of his best-selling yet. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.