Snowy Range Gang » (Reissue)

A native of Texas, Mike Blakely grew up working on the family ranch. He is a veteran of the United States Air Force and holds a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He is the former president of Western Writers of America and has taught fiction writing at numerous workshops nationwide. He is a winner of the Spur Award for Best Western Novel. Also a singer/songwriter, Blakely tours all over the U.S. and in Europe with his band and records his original songs on his own independent record label. He currently lives on his horse ranch near Marble Falls, Texas.

Claude Duval thought he was through with rustlers and killers when he left Texas for Wyoming. But the retired livestock detective soon finds ranch hands turning up dead and cattle missing. It looks like the work of Lone Wolf Wolverton, who murdered Duval's partner years ago.

But Lone Wolf, who's done his time and gone straight, rides to Duval's ranch looking for a chance to prove he's being framed. Out of leads, the lawman reluctantly accepts help from the man he's sworn to kill, and the unlikely pair teams up to track down the real rustlers and killers, the Snowy Range Gang.

Publishers Weekly

At the beginning of this slow-moving western, Texas range-regulator Claude Duval is planning to retire from tracking rustlers and settle in Wyoming. Then former client Bob Steck asks for help recovering 100 headstet sing/eed of Brahma bulls just stolen; Bob believes the bulls are being moved toward Wyoming by Lone Wolf Wolverton, an old foe of Claude's. Claude and Bob are joined by rancher Ike Lafferty, who is furious when his few, recently acquired Brahmas are stolen, too. Beautiful Correen Galloway, newly widowed by the rustlers, next joins the motley posse and is soon followed by Wolverton himself, innocent and eager to clear his born-again name. But the bad guys, the Snowy Range Gang, get the drop on the white hats, leaving Claude and his cohorts marooned horseless in the mountains. Blakely ( The Baron of the Sacramentos ) gets them out of their mess with little aplomb to conclude this dull tale, marked by sentimentality, cliche and made-for-TV plot devices. (Mar.)