Western Legends

To the Last Man: The Graham-Tewskbury feud on which this story is based is as legendary out West as the Hatfield-McCoy feud is back East. Zane Grey, of course, adds his own twist to the facts, but over-all this is probably the most accurate accounting there will ever be, as Zane Grey was able to talk to old-timers who were still living and had gone through the feud. The one scene with the hogs is the one most readers will never forget, and is based on fact. The "Romeo and Juliet" part is consistent with other romances written by Grey, and has to be in the story line to make it historical romance, which is what he considered himself to be writing. The Mysterious Rider perhaps would have been better titled, Beauty and the Beast, and I am not in any way being disparaging. Zane Grey used the same type of plot lines for many of his books, and then added an extra character to bring the book to its logical conclusion. A young girl, the adopted daughter of a wealthy rancher, is forced to marry the rancher's no-good, drunk of a son, while the young girl loves another cowboy as different from the son as could possibly be--a similar scenario is found in Heritage of the Desert. But here a "mysterious stranger" is on the scene to make things right. The Lone Star Ranger: What has traditionally been one of the best selling of Zane Grey's novels, and considered by some to be one of his best, I find far inferior to the two novels from which this book was created by the editors at Harper Brothers. The two novels, Last of the Duanes and Rangers of the Lone Star stand far above this book. There are too many missing events and characters in this version. The female love interest is completely missing in Part Two of the book and there are many other unanswered questions created by the melding of these two works. As a whole though this collection of novels goes together and belongs on anyone's shelf of Zane Grey works.