Since Kelton's books were recommended to me by Wayne Barton, (another Golden Spur winner and very fine Western writer), I have become a true Keltonite.
A former farm and ranch reporter for the San Angelo, Texas paper, Mr. Kelton grew up on the sere and unforgiving plains of West Texas at a time when wildcatters were still wild and the real old cowboys were still around to tell their tales. His books ring with an accuracy that other Western authors only lust after.
I lived out in West Texas and today's residents are shadows of their predecessors - but you can still get a good idea of what the original Anglo and Tex-Mex settlers were like from looking at them. Or, you can read Kelton and get the real thing without visiting the Llano.
Often basing his stories or real events, he creates three dimensional charachters who behave like real people with real shortcommings and emotions. They behave like people we know instead of some pre-programmed Western versions of the Terminator. Not all his books end in a titanic shwdown of blazing six-guns. But then neither did everything in real life back then.
These two novels are a pair of his works that show off some of the best qualities of Kelton's writing, but when someone crafts book with as much expertise as he does, it is hard to rate any given work against the others. They are all good.
By the way, I highly recommend you also read Kelton's "The Wolf and the Buffalo" a book which Wayne Barton accurately called, "a western novel for pepole who don't like western novels". The better known "The Good Old Boys" shows a playful side of Kelton's writing and is, sorry Tommy Lee, better than the otherwise excellent TV adaptation.
If it's Kelton - read it.
![Brush Country [Dramatized Adaptation]: Barbed Wire and Llano River](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51p+aAFNfUL.jpg)
Brush Country [Dramatized Adaptation]: Barbed Wire and Llano River
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Top reviews from other countries
Aramovich
If it's Kelton - Read It
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