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Rio Largo
When two new ranch hands stir up trouble between ranch owners and friends Kent Tovey and Dar Pierce, resulting in a major feud, a courageous cowboy will stop at nothing to expose the truth and protect the Circle T and DP ranches from falling into the wrong hands. Original.
- GenresWesterns
298 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
8 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Ralph Compton
247 books84 followersRalph Compton (April 11, 1934—September 16, 1998) was an American writer of western fiction.
A native of St. Clair County, Alabama, Compton began his writing career with a notable work, The Goodnight Trail, which was chosen as a finalist for the Western Writers of America "Medicine Pipe Bearer Award" bestowed upon the "Best Debut Novel". He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series. In the last decade of his life, he authored more than two dozen novels, some of which made it onto the USA Today bestseller list for fiction.
Ralph Compton died in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 64. Since his passing, Signet Books has continued the author's legacy, releasing new novels, written by authors such as Joseph A. West and David Robbins, under Compton's byline.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/ralphc...
A native of St. Clair County, Alabama, Compton began his writing career with a notable work, The Goodnight Trail, which was chosen as a finalist for the Western Writers of America "Medicine Pipe Bearer Award" bestowed upon the "Best Debut Novel". He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series. In the last decade of his life, he authored more than two dozen novels, some of which made it onto the USA Today bestseller list for fiction.
Ralph Compton died in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 64. Since his passing, Signet Books has continued the author's legacy, releasing new novels, written by authors such as Joseph A. West and David Robbins, under Compton's byline.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/ralphc...
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 1, 2019
Poor Ralph Compton. Why is his name on such a horrible book written by David Robbins. This book was so bad, I had to finish it like one finishes a bad film.
The initial plot was intriguing: pitting two friendly neighbouring ranches/families against each other. That said, the plot was nearly as bad as the writing decisions. The storytelling was disjointed, hoping from one character to another from different vantage points left one feeling like you had to mentally put together a jigsaw puzzle.
As many other reviewers mentioned, there is a lot of killing. Two chapters in particular were nearly identical in their layout. The baddies were comically bad: almost caricatures.
Lastly, can we talk about the racism? The only black character, who David Robbins commonly refers to as "the black", is depicted as nearly an animal. He is the only character that scares the bloodthirstiest of the outlaws and sickens another. He has no feelings whatsoever and is directly called a killer of women and children. Oh, and Mr. Robbins also had to slip in a few N-words, but it wasn't him being racist, it was the racist character he had to put into the book. I know those times were different, but I have read less racist westerns from the 1950s than this from 2006.
Perhaps the author thought he was being edgy and bringing the western genre into a new era of gore and shock-value, but that could almost be forgiven if the plot held up, which it did not.
The initial plot was intriguing: pitting two friendly neighbouring ranches/families against each other. That said, the plot was nearly as bad as the writing decisions. The storytelling was disjointed, hoping from one character to another from different vantage points left one feeling like you had to mentally put together a jigsaw puzzle.
As many other reviewers mentioned, there is a lot of killing. Two chapters in particular were nearly identical in their layout. The baddies were comically bad: almost caricatures.
Lastly, can we talk about the racism? The only black character, who David Robbins commonly refers to as "the black", is depicted as nearly an animal. He is the only character that scares the bloodthirstiest of the outlaws and sickens another. He has no feelings whatsoever and is directly called a killer of women and children. Oh, and Mr. Robbins also had to slip in a few N-words, but it wasn't him being racist, it was the racist character he had to put into the book. I know those times were different, but I have read less racist westerns from the 1950s than this from 2006.
Perhaps the author thought he was being edgy and bringing the western genre into a new era of gore and shock-value, but that could almost be forgiven if the plot held up, which it did not.
January 23, 2024
Too much evil.
I hated most of thus book because the bad guys succeeded in getting good people to kill each other. Too dang many of them. The only good thing about this book, other than the good writing, was the last two paragraphs. They did not make up for the rest if this terrible story.
I hated most of thus book because the bad guys succeeded in getting good people to kill each other. Too dang many of them. The only good thing about this book, other than the good writing, was the last two paragraphs. They did not make up for the rest if this terrible story.
June 16, 2020
Very violent and kind of a disturbing story.
August 20, 2020
Kind of dumb.
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May 2, 2016lotsa killin'
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews