The Showdown

by Peter Dawson

Book Overview

Book by Dawson, Peter This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553123777
• ISBN13: 9780553123777
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A black sheep proves his worth

Peter Dawson is one of my two favorite Western authors of all time (the other is his brother, Luke Short), and this slim but powerful novel shows why. 20 years ago, as a child of six, Jack Estes witnessed the massacre of a tribe of local Indians, invited for a peace parley by his father, rancher John Estes. He never got over the sight, and it has poisoned his relationship with John ever since. As a young man, Jack has befriended the local chief, Satank, taking his side in quarrels with his agent and the ranchers. He's also gained a name as a gambler, brawler, wastrel, and consorter with outlaws. John wants nothing to do with him, but is equally as disappointed in his younger brother Doak. When a band of hungry young braves from the nearby reservation runs off some horses and cattle and is intercepted and ambushed by a cattlemen's posse, things come to a head. There are rumors of gold on the reservation, and the ranchers want the Indians off; the best way to make that happen is to start another war--or, if possible, lure the Indians into another trap and destroy them. And that's not something Jack can stand by and allow to happen. Dawson had a way with tight, fast-moving plots--and a gift for prose that makes his stories a real pleasure to read. His characters are fascinating--Jack, who keeps his painful memories tucked down while trying to make amends for what he sees as his father's fall from grace; John, grown powerful and ambitious, yet deeply disappointed in his sons; Eastern cousin Jessie, fetched out to be a bride for Doak, who falls for Jack instead; Jack's fat, blustering pal Barfoot; young Blecha Maxon, who dreams of becoming the next Big He-Bull on the range. All Dawson novels are classics--they have the real spirit of the West, yet, like the movies that were their contemporaries, they neither have nor need shock value or gratuitious violence. This title would be a good one with which to begin your acquaintance with the author, who is equally well suited to teen and adult readers.