Stands a Ranger

by Cotton Smith

Texas Ranger Time Carlow must find and capture a murderous madman named Silver Mallow, who do anything to stay out of the jail from which he escaped. Reprint.

Genres: Westerns

337 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2006

About the author

Cotton Smith was born in Kansas City, Missouri; some would say a century later than he should have. He grew up enjoying both adjoining states, Kansas and Missouri, living mostly in Kansas. His ancestors fought in the Civil War, mostly for the South, as regulars and guerillas. As a young man, he learned to ride horses from a grizzled wrangler he remembers fondly. He also learned how to roll a cigarette then, too! "Looking back on it, he taught me the right ways around a horse -- and he taught me some other things too. Like swinging into the saddle with the horse loping. And springing up from the rear, like the movie stars did. Never occurred to me then that I could get hurt. Guess no young person ever does."

Early in life, he was also exposed to the ways of the Plains Indian, to their sacred ceremonies, customs and traditions. His appreciation for their spiritual connection to the land and all that occupied it was heightened by involvement with Indian friends and backed by extensive research. Both touched him deeply and can be readily seen in his caring -- and accurate--portrayal of Indians in his novels. Throughout his stories, one finds intriguing glimpses of this insight, giving readers a sense of what really was and why.

Reviews

[Steve Lacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stands a Ranger

I am so enjoying Cotton Smith’s novel of the American West. The characters are compelling, the stories intriguing, and the writing captivating. This was the second of the Thunder Killeen books and I will start the third an last right away.

[Mathew Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This it the first Western I've ever read, and I can tell you it won't be the last. This genre kicks some major a$# - with a cowboy boot, to boot!

The story is predictable, in that you know the Ranger is going to beat a few roughnecks, but like many other things it's the journey that counts. Well this journey is full of cliches and fluffy cheese, and I love it. It just makes the book easy to read.

The story starts with the Ranger on the trail of some nasty criminal, who wears a black hat of course. Within the first dozen pages he's ambushed where he takes a gunshot in the head and a bullet in the shoulder. But, this Ranger toughs it out and continues the chase. A few pages later the Ranger ends up in a saloon where a barfight breaks out. He manages to beat up a roomful of hired thugs and still sweet talks a 'snaggle-toothed' prostitute. A few pages after this he takes a stand, I'm guessing in reference to the title of the book, and gives up chasing the long gone murderer and takes on the corruption in this tiny town to save a poor widow's farm. There is another gunbattle, a cattle stampede, and everything ends happily ever after. See what I mean about cliche? The only thing missing is a bank robbery or a train heist.

A few things I found strange: In the barfight the Ranger takes on this 'huge' man and beats him by kicking him in the crotch! That struck me as uncowboy like.

Another thing that is hard to get past is the names. The black hatted 'bad guy' is named Silver Mallow. What is that all about? There is a native named Two-wolf-feet, or something just as borderline racist? Ranger Chase or Chance. Definitely not literary names.

Then there is the side story about a one armed drunk who stays to help the ranger fight. A bit far fetched, me thinks.

Another thing is the view of women by the cowboys in this book. It was terrible. There is the widow, who is a tough ranch women, who makes wonderful biscuits and ends up shooting someone point blank in the neck! But, her toughness is not the main concern of the one Ranger. Nope, he keeps comparing all her qualities to those in bed. The prostitutes only get a quick mention, again in light of their bedroom skills. Then there is the crazy wife of the evil Doctor (I know doesn't that just sum up the cheese factor?), who is constantly being seen by everyone as a sex fiend. And, it doesn't help that she gets naked to do weird voodoo stuff.

My conclusion, not rocket science, is that this book is aimed at men...which is just fine with me.

I really picked this book up because I am doing a challenge to read books written by a Smith. Nothing in my local library caught my interest, and I've been meaning to read a western for some time. I'm shootin' my guns in the air to celebrate this great pick and plan to read more Cotton Smith in the near future

http://bookwormsfeastofbooks.blogspot...

[Max R. Tyler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok western.

It was hard to get used to the characters at first, but by the end they were likeable. The story seemed to ramble a little. All in all it was a pretty good western story.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

should be a movie, if its not. A great mix of western and other cultures,which is not too often seen in a western novel. Great read.

[Christopher Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent cowboy adventure; a Texas Ranger hunts an escaped killer and stumbles upon a widow being preyed upon by a man who wants to steal her land and cattle. This is hardly new territory but the value of a tale is in its telling, not its unique plot.

Time Carlow is an Irish Texas Ranger, who is Irish in his Irishness and everyone hates Irish, according to this author. Authentically in the old west there was some bigotry against various groups, but its a bit overplayed in this book. So much so that there are a good dozen negative references, reactions, signs etc against Irish but the one black character is basically ignored, treated as any other cowpoke except for one reference by a corrupt sheriff.

Also, our hero shows up in town covered with blood, mud, filth, and basically like he was wallowing in the dirt, which he was... and never takes a bath, tries to clean up, tries to get new clothes on, and further nobody notices -- but the ladies all seem to think he's just wonderful.

And finally, the bulk of the story is narration about the zany superstitions of Killeen, the Ranger's older partner, who does eventually show up but almost dominates the story even before that point.

A bit of a spoiler; the outlaw being hunted has been shot a couple times and beaten within an inch of his life, but the Texas Ranger never considers that this man might want to see a doctor when he gets to town, never checks on that.

Its an entertaining enough story despite these flaws but that's a lot of unforced errors that make me not particularly care about the other books in the series.

[Peggy Barnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book

Well-written and interesting story . I like the way it flowed . The Irish tent was really good and made it different than most