Customer Reviews

The Rustlers of Pecos County

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I enjoyed this book, but it's not like any Zane grey book I have read previously. Makes me wonder if he wrote it in conjunction with one of his kids--or if it's a Loren Zane Grey book but the publisher left off the "Loren" part? It has some of Zane's quirks of language, which I love, but not consistently and there are other bits of language that are uncharacteristic of him (more uses of "damn" or "hell" than I have found in any of his other books, for instance), and far more focus on the love interest than I have found in any of his other works.

Anyway, it's a good book but I can't get past the idea that I'm reading someone else who is trying to write like Zane Grey but not quite making it. I guess the joke's on me if it really were written by Grey.

Written earlier in his career, and in first person, this story about the Texas Rangers is typical "western" material. Having said that, I by no means mean this is inferior stuff, but you can see, if you are a devotee of Zane Grey that this book was a model for many of the more famous works that came later, making him famous. Many of his books are interconnected with scenes and prologues that are in other stories--provided you have read them all, and have a good memory. The one thing Zane Grey did not do well, in my opinion, is tell a fiction story well in 1st person. His fishing books, and camp and trail books are superbly told this way, but his fiction lacks something when he uses this literary device. This is still a good enough book to buy and read, so if you don't have it, get it, and enjoy.