Westward of the Law

By Matt Braun

Book Overview

In the Texas Panhandle, Newt Bascom and Sam Jordan are stock detectives who have the brains to outwit most rustlers--and the brawn to outfight the rest. Now, Bascom and Jordan are being dispatched on a once-in-a-lifetime job. Someone has made off with a prized, imported English bull named Homer. The detectives have to bring Homer home... From Palo Duro Canyon through the Staked Plains, Bascom and Jordan pick up the trail of the missing bull--and the shadowy rustler who took him. And when Dodge City, run by an ornery Marshall named Earp, turns up empty, the detectives head into a wild land. Bluffing, bludgeoning and bragging their way into a smart, secretive and deadly criminal gang, Bascom and Jordan find their bull all right. But stealing back a critter who has love and leisure on his mind proves to be the easy part of the job. The hard part is getting back to Texas--with Homer and their lives...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312938187
• ISBN13: 9780312938185
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Predictable but enjoyable Western

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