Marauders' Moon

By Luke Short

Book Overview

A captured outlaw gets caught up in a bloody range war in this thrilling tale of the Old West from a Levi Strauss Golden Saddleman Award-winning author. Lawbreaker Webb Cousins is headed for a short trial and a long stretch in jail. A bounty hunter has him cuffed and covered, with no chance of escape. But when the prisoner and his captor ride into the town of Wagon Mound, death rides with them. In a flash of rifle fire and a spray of blood, Cousins finds himself shackled to a dead man--and unwittingly caught up in a murderous range war he wants nothing to do with. To ride away a free man will take more than breaking his bonds. He'll have to wage a one-man battle against two bitter enemies locked in a vicious cycle of vengeance and cruelty. It will take every ounce of cunning, a double shot of courage, and a long, dark ride into hell for Cousins to finally break free. Luke Short, along with such legendary authors as Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, helped transform the stories of the American West from dime-store pulp into an immensely popular literary genre. Marauders' Moon is one of his grittiest and most suspenseful stories of western adventure.

• Format: MP3 CD
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0CVKMXZWH
• ISBN13: 9798212940740
• Release Date: August 2023
• Publisher: Tantor Audio

Customer Reviews

Alone against a feud

Once again Luke Short draws a picture of a lone courageous man facing incredible odds and succeeding by determination, wit, and the speed of his guns and fists. Webb Cousins has been set up for the robbery of a train on which he was riding and captured by a Wintering County deputy when the two of them get caught in the middle of a bank holdup in Wagon Mound, in the next county north. Suddenly Webb finds himself handcuffed to a dead deputy and accused of being in on the holdup, which has cleaned the town out. He soon discovers that the two counties have been feuding bitterly for almost a generation--indeed, Wagon Mound and its surrounding ranches were established by people fleeing the lawless Bannister clan that had taken over Wintering--and that the bank robbers were almost certainly in Bannister pay. It's none of Webb's business, but when he's remanded to the custody of cattleman Buck Tolleston (because the county is now broke and can't afford to feed him if he's jailed), he slowly becomes an advocate of the Wagon Mound faction, and in the end it's through his efforts that the feud is resolved. Though Webb's decision to get involved doesn't at first seem logical, it's eventually explained, and meanwhile Short, as usual, packs a lot of plot twists and fascinating characters into his short book (among the best of the latter are Sheriff Wardecker, Wagon Mound's crippled lawman, and Drake Bannister, the smooth yet ruthless boss badman/rancher). With betrayals and revelations galore, it's a fast-paced, exciting read and would make a superior introduction to the author's work.

A ripsnortin' yarn about range war, robbery and revenge!

Reading this book reminded me why I enjoyed Luke Short's books so when I was a boy. This plot-twist laden and fast-paced shoot 'em up will have the reader on the edge of his seat as he burns through the pages of this well-told tale. Our hapless hero is hurrahed into a hanging (his own) before fate intervenes and he finds himself caught up in a range war between two long time rivals who both want him dead. Suffice it to say that in the end right overcomes might and no amount of treachery, double-dealing, outlawry or attempts on his life are enough to overcome the ingenuity and resourcefulness of our hero who saves the day, sells the ranch and gets the girl. My only complaint is with the very ending which should have occurred either a page and a half earlier or a page and a half later. Hasta la vista