Shotgun and Six Bits a Day: Two Complete Novels

by Elmer Kelton

ShotgunRancher Blair Bishop of Two Forks, Texas, has too many enemies…and they’re closing in. Macy Modock, whom Bishop sent to prison ten years ago, returns to Two Forks looking for vengeance. Cowman Clarence Cass conspires with Modock to ruin his rival even though Cass’s daughter and Bishiop’s son are in love. The black-hearted duo lay claim to untitled lands where Bishop grazes his cattle—a plan that leads to a deadly confrontation in which two men will die. Six Bits a DayTo keep his conservative brother from getting married and starting life as a farmer, Hewey Calloway convinces Walter to join him on a mission for Boss Tarpley, driving 600 head of cattle from beyond San Antonio to the Double-C ranch on the Pecos. The journey is both memorable and dangerous: a murderous outlaw is searching for Hewey; and another ruthless character is determined to sabotage the cattle drive. When the drivers reach the Pecos they find Tarpley in the midst of a vicious range feud with Eli Jessup, a neighboring cowman. Hewey and his brother Walter have to get the herd safely across Jessup's land—but how? Two thrilling Westerns from the legendary Elmer Kelton

Genres: Westerns

432 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 25, 2014

About the author

Elmer Kelton (1926-2009) was award-winning author of more than forty novels, including The Time It Never Rained, Other Men’s Horses, Texas Standoff and Hard Trail to Follow. He grew up on a ranch near Crane, Texas, and earned a journalism degree from the University of Texas. His first novel, Hot Iron, was published in 1956. Among his awards have been seven Spurs from Western Writers of America and four Western Heritage awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. His novel The Good Old Boys was made into a television film starring Tommy Lee Jones. In addition to his novels, Kelton worked as an agricultural journalist for 42 years. He served in the infantry in World War II. He died in 2009.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/elmerk...

Reviews

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two old fashioned Western novels are in the book. In Shotgun an ex-convict is released from prison and sets out on a campaign of revenge attempting to steal two ranches and abuse a young woman along the way. In Six Bits A Day two brothers testify against a cattle thief and are threatened by him before he escapes. The younger man falls for the assistant cook in a boarding house and his brother drags him on a cattle buying trip for one of two ex-partners who are feuding. There are some historic facts about Karnes County and Panna Maria [the oldest Polish community in the US] as well as the Permian Basin in the story. Fans of Louis L"Amour and Zane Grey will enjoy Kelton's story telling.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two classic Kelton westerns in one printing, Shotgun and Six Bits a Day are both good reads.

Shotgun:
"Shotgun" (1969) starts when a rancher in Texas named Blair Bishop hears that an outlaw named Macy Modock is back in town after serving out his ten-year prison sentence. Modock wants revenge on Bishop for witnessing against him in court but doesn't want it to be a quick revenge; he wants to make life painful for the man who took ten years of his life and Modock has money and a plan to make it happen. Bishop's sons Allan and Billy, the neighboring lazy rancher and his daughter, a former outlaw working for Bishop, and a local sheriff all see parts of the puzzle and try to figure out how to best protect themselves from whatever dastardly scheme Modock is cooking up without breaking any laws themselves.

Verdict: An easy, short western mystery, perfect pacing and interesting characters.

Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG

Six Bits a Day:
A 2005 western from Elmer Kelton, "Six Bits a Day" is an adventure set in 1880 West Texas. Young brothers Hewey and Walter Calloway have made their way west seeking work but eventually discover they both want different things. Hewey (the older brother) is a fun-loving whiskey-drinking money-spending unattached adventure-seeker while Walter has more wholesome goals, saves his money, and hopes to one day farm and raise cattle on a homestead with a wife and kids. They sign on to work with a stingy rancher named CC Tarpley who is in a tense range conflict of suspicion with a neighbor that hasn't come to bullets quite yet, and then find themselves driving a herd for Tarpley while Hewey is being pursued by a vengeful outlaw.

Yet again my attempt to summarize a plot setup for a Kelton novel runs way too long lol. Let's just say it isn't as complicated as it reads above. Kelton is good at weaving all these various interesting characters in his novels with varying degrees of respect, responsibility, morals, and loyalty to each other, some good, some bad, and he creates an oftentimes lame and at other times fun dramatic adventure for his main protagonists that reads light and easy.

Some of the characters from Kelton's Texas Rangers series make appearances in "Six Bits a Day."

Verdict: Pretty standard Kelton fare. The stereotypically stubborn one-note placeholder characters aren't much but the two main protagonists have an interesting adventure and there are some weighty uncomfortable frontier justice decisions to be made. I was on the fence between "rating" this one between an Okay or Good but honestly like how it ended.

Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had only read one other American Western novel: Roy Chanslor's "The Ballad of Cat Ballou". I thought it might be fun to try a genre that I was not too familiar with. This book contains two short novels. The First story called Shotgun deals with a desperado who is gunning for a rancher who put him away ten years earlier. He tries to use the law this time, but in the end is far too stupid to make it work for him. The second story called Six Bits a Day is a tale of two brothers making their way as cowboys in Texas.

Although both stories are simple and contain some seriously shallow characters, the second story attempts to address some more modern problems like racism and greed. Well, I guess they were problems since man first crawled out of the cave and discovered he had to compete for resources, but I doubt very much people in the Old West saw it in the way that Mr. Kelton's characters did. Nevertheless, I am no one to judge anything in this genre yet and I will read a few more Western novels to get a feel for them and get back to you.

I had a good time and I was interested enough to find out how the stories ended. I think it is worth a read if you feel like sitting-a-spell and putting your feet up by the camp fire.