The Tenderfoot Trail

Trail Drive #22

by Joseph A. West, Ralph Compton

Pursued by the law, vigilantes, and bounty hunters, Luke Garrett, framed for a murder he did not commit and saddled with five mail-order brides, must drive his cattle herd through Whoop-Up Trail, a land rife with hostile Indians and other dangers, which is his only hope for survival. Original.

Genres: Westerns

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 5, 2006

About the author

Joe West was born and raised in the seaside town of Saltcoats in Scotland. At 19 he became a police officer, but soon turned his love of writing into a career as a journalist, working for the Daily Mirror in London among others. In 1972 West was recruited as a reporter for the National Enquirer, and began working in the United States. Traveling the world in search of stories, West almost froze to death on an Alaska mountain, and a spider bite nearly killed him in the Amazon rainforest. 'I swelled up like a balloon and turned a real pretty violet color,' he recalls.

Now a full-time novelist, West and his wife Emily reside in sunny Lake Worth, Florida, where he enjoys tamer pursuits like canoeing the alligator-infested swamps of the Everglades. His daughter Alexandria attends a local college where she studies forensic technology. She will have absolutely nothing to do with canoes and alligators.

West researches the settings of his novels by exploring the terrain in person, usually with little more than a sleeping bag and a can of coffee.

Recently he and Emily celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary at the Lodge in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, a gift from the students at Rio Rancho High School who use West's first novel as a textbook. They then spent a month in the mountains and deserts of New Mexico, often pitching their tent where the air is thin at 9,000 feet above the flat.

Reviews

[David Burnworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Luke Garrett was your typical farmer/Rancher, who only wanted to take his small herd on the trail to sell things went quickly wrong when he and his friend/ranch hand were bushwhacked and Luke was forced to kill his first man. He gets framed for murder and then the adventure begins. Nothing good happens for him along the journey in the end only one will live.

[Peter Charleston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luke Garrett would like to add a bull on his small spread along with an artesian well. To accomplish this he and his old hand gather up a few hundred of the cattle to drive to market. The problems they encounter along the trail provide an intriguing western reading adventure.

[Nolan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first couple pages and it reads, Lake Garrett is 25 years old his hands were big and scarred from 20 years of working cattle. So, he was 5 years old when he started working with cattle? Luke isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. At times he is down right stupid with what he says and does.

[Jeffery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost constant action and I could not put it down and I read it in 2 days.

[DocHolidavid · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Joseph West's stuff. This is not one of his better ones.