The Last Free Range (G K Hall Large Print Book Series) - Hardcover

Ritchie, James A.

2.5

6 ratings by Goodreads

9780783818436: The Last Free Range (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0783818432 ISBN 13: 9780783818436

Publisher: G K Hall & Co, 1996

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Bad feelings crop up among 1886 Texas range ranchers after a surplus of livestock limits grazing areas, and when Ben Hawkins and his best friends find jobs at rival outfits, they are drawn into disputes that are not their own

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From Publishers Weekly:

Ritchie (Kerrigan) spins a likable yarn in this tale of the closing of the frontier. Times are tough. Ben Hawkins is only 46, but in Texas in 1886 that makes him one of the oldest cowpokes around. Though he's made a fair piece of change over the years, he's broke, having drunk and whored all his money away on paydays. When summer work on the small ranch where he punches cows dries up, he and two pals set out for the Rocking M Ranch, 150 miles away, on the slim hope of employment there. After scrapes with the law, the pardners arrive in the Pecos country only to discover that the Rocking M is more interested in hiring guns than cattlemen. The range is being overgrazed and now folks are beginning to string barbed wire and enclose what was once open grazing land. Although one of the boys signs on, Ben wants no part of it and rides on, but soon he's drawn into the range wars anyway, and on the opposite side from onetime friends. A good ear for dialogue and a sense of period detail add texture to what would otherwise have been a routine oater, and in Ben Hawkins, Ritchie has created an affable, world-weary and reluctant hero worthy of a sequel.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

It's the fall of 1886, and Ben Hawkins, Billy Martin, and Johnny Stevens are looking to avoid the grub line and find winter work. They hear the Rocking M spread is hiring but that there may be as much shootin' as ropin'. Ben, on the shady side of 40, saw enough killing in the Civil War; Johnny, young and impetuous, signs on with the Rocking M and its free-range-advocate owner Neal Pierce. Billy takes a job with the widow Beth Alison at the Reverse Box E, which happens to be the biggest thorn in Pierce's side. Inevitably, Pierce's henchmen goad Billy into a gun battle and wound him, forcing the amputation of a leg. Out of loyalty to his friend, Ben signs on with the Reverse Box E and its battle to survive. This may be a variation of the most common western plot--plucky little rancher against monolithic land baron--but it is well told with nicely drawn and believably motivated characters. Solid, entertaining reading for genre fans. Wes Lukowsky

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