The Baron Brand

Barons #3

by Jory Sherman

It is the eve of the Civil War, but the ranchers of the Rio Grande Valley are already fighting--amongst themselves and with the fierce Apaches. Martin Baron finds himself in battle against his own neighbor, Matteo Aguilar, and must fight daily to keep his family safe. Martin's proud and heart-sick son Anson, must leave leave all he knows and loves to head off an attack by an Apache chief against the ranch's settlers. But without his son at home to help protect the ranch, everything the Baron's have worked so hard to create is in danger of being destroyed.  The Baron Range is a story as rich as Texas itself, as the men and women struggle against all odds for wealth, power, and peace of mind in savage and uncertain world.      

Genres: Westerns

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 12, 2000

About the author

Jory Sherman was born in Minnesota and grew up in West Texas, Louisiana, and Colorado. He was a magazine editor for a time and had some of his work published, including some poetry, short stories and articles. Sherman had a friend who owned a publishing company and asked him to write a novel for the company. From that offer came five more novels, all written in one year. He wrote the supernatural mystery series, "Chill," which was somewhat revolutionary for the times, but which earned him an eight book contract. He then came up with the idea for "Rivers West," a series which had each book written by a different western author. Then came the "Baron Saga," the first of which was "Grass Kingdom" which earned Sherman a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in Letters. Sherman has also won the Spur Award for his contribution to Western Literature.

Reviews

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a good saga if I had started with the first book but I picked this up at the library; will have to see if they have the first two ... even tho the characters are defined at the beginning, I still had a bit of a problem identifying them as the story unfolded. This story is set just at the beginning of the war between the states and in TX, as with others, some people didn't mind slavery while others were against it. Most of it is the same of life in the early west but at the end there is a hero who saves a dozen slaves from their predators. Maybe we'll find out their fate in the next book ? A good read.

[Laura Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

***SPOILER ALERT***

My main issue with this book is that Martin Barron decides to liberate some slaves from Matteo. He then decides to manumit them and give them paying jobs. This book takes place in 1861. The Law of February 5, 1840, passed by the Congress of the Republic of Texas, made it illegal for free Black people to live in Texas without the consent of their owners. The law gave free Black people two years to leave the state or face being sold into slavery for life.

So I'm not sure if the author wasn't aware of this or if he was and his character Martin Barron wasn't aware of it.

Otherwise it's a fairly straightforward western.