Customer Reviews

Hard Trail To Follow (Texas Rangers, No 7)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Once again, Elmer Kelton has written another great western story. Andy Pickard and the other great characters of Mr. Kelton's Texas Rangers series return, in addition to many colorful and interesting new personalities. This time, Andy is in pursuit of outlaw Luther Cordell, for the death of Andy's friend, Sheriff Tom Blessing. Mr. Kelton has created another great character in Luther Cordell, a likable, aging outlaw, with his own code of honor. After many years on the wrong side of the law, Luther regrets the lonely life he's led and the effect it has had on others, and wishes that he could put it all behind him and settle down in peace. Mr. Kelton again shows his ability to create characters that you'll come to care about (both good & bad, to like & dislike) and a story to keep you engrossed and entertained. As with all his previous works, Mr. Kelton's knowledge of Texas history, geography and people always bring so much to his wonderful tales.

Simply put, any author reading "Hard Trail To Follow" has a "Hard Act to Follow"!

"Hard Trail" is a remarkable achievment of character driven storytelling by a master wordsmith. Andy Pickard, ex Texas Ranger and young farmer, is faced with a dilemna. His future brother in law, Farley Brackett, fellow ex Texas Ranger and pain the butt, is both blessing and curse. Bethel, Andy's fiancé, wants nothing more than the two men to get along without fisttocuffs. Andy, wants nothing but Bethel, and to be left alone by Farleys' biting criticism.

Enter Tom Blessing, local Sheriff and friend to all. Facing retirement and a ruthless criminal Luther Cordell, circumstances lead to an escape by Cordell and in the effort, the lingering death of Blessing. A reluctant deputy, Andy and Farley lead up a small posse to bring Cordell in for his crime. Reaching county lines, Farley leaves Andy to track Cordell as an acting Texas Ranger with no county boundaries in the way of his jurisdiction. A long trail has just begun as Andy and Choctaw John, his half native tracker, snake their way through Texas only to land up in Griffin. Cordell, along the way, had lost one member, David Johnson. Milt Hayward, the murderer of Tom Blessing, broke rank with Luther and went south to Mexico.

The Hard Trail becomes his redemption trail as Cordell rediscovers his humanity, compassion, and his ability to love once more. Cordell `dies' as Hayward is taken back as the murderer of Blessing, and William Goodson remains to start anew.

Kelton writes an amazing story. More amazing is the depth of the characters. Throughout the book, Cordell grows on you as he changes page by page. The friendly banter between Choctaw John and Andy Pickard is a delightfully light touch to an otherwise intense book.

A true mark of a master storyteller is the anticipation between volumes. If that is the case, Kelton is a master, with his harp and lyre being pen and paper. His literative voice, soothing as a ballad of old, beckons you to settle down and listen attentively. Linger, while I tell a tale...

Www.tor-forge.com

Tim Lasiuta

Andy Pickard loves Bethel and there is no doubt about that. In his late 20's, this former Texas Ranger understands why Bethel won't leave the family farm and her ill mother. He doesn't understand why Farley Brackett, his future brother-in-law hates him so much or why he won't help out. Or why he is constantly on Andy's back about his being held prisoner by the Comanches when he was a kid or all the other things he harasses him with considering all the free labor Andy is doing.

Farley is a hard man and unappreciative. After a brief physical skirmish that neither man won, Andy decides to hit the trail and leave it all behind. Bethel isn't leaving and Andy can't put up with Farley anymore. If he stays, there might be another fight and somebody could get seriously killed or hurt. Andy isn't going to put Bethel through that and since she isn't going to leave, all he can do is head out with an unspecified need to do something else with his life. That decision sends him before lone into a confrontation with bank robbers, the death of a friend, and his putting on the badge of the legendary Texas Rangers once more.

It also sets him on the trail of an escaped outlaw across Southeastern and South Central Texas. Times are changing with the Indians on the reservations for years now, land and pastures fenced, and the telegraph spreading the latest news far and wide. Posses still ride and a fugitive can still make good on the escape but the telegraph spreads the news of the manhunt faster than the fugitive can travel. For both any Pickard as well as the fugitive known as Cordell, the chase is a long one full of twists and turns as well as a journey of self awareness as much as anything.

Author Elmer Kelton is considered by many to be the premier writer of western literature. Known for his authentic settings, realistic characters and concise prose he is a winner of Seven Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America as well as many others. The native Texan, who has authored more then fifty novel, is a legend and an author known to work the shades of gray. His characters wear neither black or white hats, but gray ones of varying shades as they go about their hard struggles in novels that don't romanticize the way it was for most people.

Such is the case here where the lawman and the outlaw could easily be nearly the same man. As the chase wears on, the reader shifts back and forth between both characters as well as a few others, in ways that not only bring the novel to life but illustrate truths that still very much hold true today. Portrayed by many as simpler times, they weren't. They were just different, but contained many of the same struggles that most face today. Author Elmer Kelton illustrates that point along with a few others worth reading in this engaging western.


Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2008

This book is another treasure for those in the future who attempt to understand the people who lived in the late 19th century Texas. The characters may be works of fiction, but there is no question that their counterparts actually lived.

The vast majority of Western artists, whether writers, or painters or whatever medium is choosen, fail to capture the essence of the variety of personalities of the era. This is a skill that Elmer Kelton has mastered. The only authors I know of who "get" this are those who were raised in the time or raised with those who lived the life, and paid REALLY close attention to the details. Everyone else panders to the romantic notions of pop culture.

The apprenticeship is long and hard. Kelton has clearly served his.

Elmer Kelton sets this saga in western Texas.It is a saga in the sense that it goes on for several weeks.
When a man has about all he can take with the situation he finds himself in;the time comes when choices must be made.Caught living on a farm, with the girl he hopes one day to marry ;and sharing his life with her brother who has no respect for him,or even himself;can result in a life not worth living.
As Andy decides to get away from this situation ,he runs into old friends and circumstances that lead him on a long journey of chasing down the killer of his long time Ranger friend and Sheriff.The story involves a lot of interesting characters,all who have backgrounds that influence their actions.As we soon learn,there are those who are inherently bad,others who are inherently good and those who are a mixture of both. What we get here are two men whose lives have become influenced by things that are taking them in directions they would sooner not be traveling in.
It is a good western novel,more about solving life situations than many typical westerns that are filled with fast action shootouts,bar room fights, and harrowing ,life threatening situations.It is a slow paced,quite long story,but nonetheless,with lots of good writing that keeps the readers interest from beginning to end.

This is an interesting story in that the so-called bad guy nearly stole the story from the main character. At first the pace was slow and didn't hold my interest, but about the middle of the book, it picked up. I enjoyed the interaction between the main character Andy and John, the tracker, who he picked up along the way to follow the "bad" guy's track. Andy is white, but was raised by the Comanches. Although the Indian is stereotyped as an excellent tracker, and Andy should have learned something from them, he can't read sign to save his life. John is half white and half Choctaw and can almost, but not quite, track over bare rock.
The story begins when Andy is farming in an effort to please his bride to be. He isn't much of a farmer and his wife's brother is a royal pain. Finally even his girl agrees that he ought to leave for a while.
Then the sheriff locks up a bank robber and when the robbers friends spring him from jail, the sheriff, a good friend of Andy's, is killed. A former Texas Ranger, Andy soon rejoins their ranks and is back in the saddle again, hunting down who he believes is the thief and killer. But what he believes is only about half of the truth. Eunice Boeve, author of Ride a Shadowed Trail

This is a very good book.I love everything I have got my hands from Elemr Kelton.

The story has plenty of twists and turns as do nearly all Elmer Kelton's novels do. I didn't like as much as some other books of his but it's a good story none the less. A lot of familiar Kelton characters are in this story. It's ending was not what you would expect. Read it...you will enjoy it.

Elmer Kelton is the greatest. The characters are real and believable. I love the historical settings.