Center Point Premier Western (Large Print)
4 total works
His name was Daniel Provost, and it was the time of the Texas Republic. He had been a farm boy, and his heroes were the people who had died defending the Alamo. Without quite knowing why, he wanted desperately to have at least one adventure before setting for life behind a plow. When Milo Seldon came riding in with his packmules loaded with contraband tobacco to sell across the border in Mexico, Daniel naturally wanted to give a helping hand, especially when it became clear tha Milo was being followed by two unwholesome characters who claimed the packmules as their own property. Fortunately for Daniel, when he went thundering off into the sunset on his plowhorse, he thought to pack a gun. After all, he hadn't been a hardscrabble farmer for nothing...
Frank Claymore is not easy to like - to admire, maybe, but not to like. He is cantankerous, stubborn, and intolerant - the very qualities that make him a success as an open-range cattleman on the West Texas frontier. In one of his most memorable novels, acclaimed Western writer Elmer Kelton follows Frank Claymore's life from the time of the Civil War to the dawn of the 20th century - through marriage, births, deaths, and a creeping change in the society that once hailed him as a hero, but which later has him condemned and tried for murder.
As he flees to the sanctuary of Mexico, Chacho Fernandez is unaware of the fuel he has added to the already simmering racial hatreds in and around the quiet town of Domingo, Texas. Through events set in motion by a misunderstanding, Chacho becomes a folk hero to his people and a dangerous fugitive to a group of zealous lawmen. Manhunters, the tale of Chacho's legendary flight, was inspired by the story of controversial Mexican fugitive Gregorio Cortez. In 1901 Cortez, a young horseman, shot a sheriff during an argument, leading to the largest concerted manhunt in Texas history.
I can't say I've wasted much time regretting the things I've done. My main regret has been over some men I didn't shoot when I had the chance." So says Joe Pepper, a Texas bad man with a past. There aren't many things he hasn't done in forty years of living on both sides of the law, except face the hangman. Now, convicted of murder, he is about to have that privilege. But before he hangs, he wants to tell his story and set the record straight.