Customer Reviews

Westward of the Law

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I think the writer had a lot of fun putting this together particularly how you get a recalcitrant bull to move quicker, if at all, than the sedate pace it wants to go at when you are being chased by those on horseback with murder in their eye.

Newt Bascom and Sam Jordan were range detectives for the Panhandle Cattlemen's Association assigned to find and return `Homer' the stolen prize Durham bull to its owner Lord Stanley Ingram of the Circle I ranch in the Palo Duro Canyon.

Without ever lecturing, Braun neatly and succinctly weaves history into his story of Bull Durham tobacco, how the panhandle was opened up to ranching, Wyatt Earp, and Dodge City. Good analysis of tracking, too.

Jordan was more daring; Bascom more cautious, more the worrier. This contrast made for a lot of fun as did the host of colourful characters they met along the way in their quest to find and return Homer to its rightful owner.

Matt Braun in this ealier work hasnt reached the finesse of his later books. This is a simple story of 2 "goodies" versus the "baddies" and its very clear throughout who will win virtually unscathed ,in the end.

Sure we expect our Westerns to end up the way we want , with good defeating evil,and we are rarely disappointed.

Worth a read because he does write good stuff.

This 1991 novel has as its protagonists two range detectives ,Newt Bascomb and Sam Jordan ,known as the Durham Brothers due to their predeliction for Bull Durham tobacco .They are based in the Texas Panhandle and work for a consortium of the bigger local ranchers .When an imported prize bull belonging to the English aristocrat Lord Ingram is stolen by rustlers they are despatched to locate the anaimal and return it to its rightful owner

The trail takes them first to Dodge City and an encounter with Wyatt Earp-here treated with the lack of sympathy that is a feature of most Braun books in which the fabled lawman appears .They then find themselves in Tahlequah ,the capital of the Cherokee nations where they are directed to the most likely culprits -an outlaw gang headed by the shrewd and mendacious Rafe Dolan .They pose as outlaws and inflitrate the gang as a prelude to liberating the bull and trying to get him back safely to Texas while avoiding the pursuing outlaws and marauding hostile Indians en route

The plot developments are pretty standard fare but Braun is shrewd enough to leaven this with some drily comic passges and there is an interesting section of the book which is set in Cherokee Territory and which gives some intersting information on the wealth of the nation and its law enforcement customs

Add in hostile Indians ,saloon shoot-outs and a lively fistfight or two and this is an actionful tale that genre lovers will appreciate and enjoy.As the plot involves elements of detection crime readers may find it to their taste ,in addition to the usual genre readership