The Way of the Coyote (Texas Rangers Series #3) » (~)

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 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.

Publishers Weekly

As gratifying as a McMurtry side plot and with more gritty excitement than just about any Hollywood cowboy flick, this outing highlights the post-Civil War limbo suffered by the Texas Rangers. Andy Pickard, a 10-year-old half-wild captive of the Comanches, is forced from the tribe for killing a bully and is rescued by former Texas Ranger Rusty Shannon, who "adopts" Andy when his only relative refuses to take him in. The Rangers, formed before the Civil War, were exempt from service; they were scorned by the men who chose the Confederate cause and distrusted by the corrupt carpetbag Union government that disbanded them. Working hard, and with the help of a small network of friends, Rusty has made a go of his hardscrabble ranch in an area ravaged by carpetbagger greed, corrupt Unionist state police, war-born malice and poverty, and fierce, frequent Indian raids. Rusty's unstable life with Andy teeters on the brink of collapse when his old nemeses, the Oldham Brothers, local thugs in league with a corrupt judge, steal his ranch and burn out a freed slave, Shanty, a friend under Rusty and Andy's protection. Events reach dynamite levels when the Comanches kidnap the son of Rusty's old love, and teenage Andy must try for a rescue when Rusty is wounded and out of action. Kelton covers a wide swath of history with aplomb, illuminating a little-known period in Western history. California is still Mexican, Indians are a real threat and outlaws rule the land in this rough-riding adventure tale. Author tour. (Dec.) Forecast: After 37 novels, Kelton's third entry (after Badger Boy) in the Texas Rangers series could cross genre lines and expand his already substantial fan base. Copyright 2001 CahnersBusiness Information.