Manhunters

by Elmer Kelton, Bill Crider (Other)

Overview

Chacho is a young horse handler who, while being cheated by a trader, is forced into a gun battle and kills an Anglo sheriff. As the long-simmering hatred between Anglos and Mexicans erupt, Chacho becomes a hero to his own people and a fugitive from the law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780875651323
Publisher:	TCU Press
Publication date:	10/28/1994
Series:	Texas Tradition Series , #22
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	6.33(w) x 9.28(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Elmer Kelton is the author of over forty novels, published over more than fifty years. Three of Kelton’s novels have appeared in Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. Four books have won the Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City: The Time It Never Rained, The Good Old Boys, The Man Who Rode Midnight, and the text for The Art of Howard. Seven have won the Spur award from Western Writers of America: Buffalo Wagons, The Day the Cowboys Quit, The Time It Never Rained, Eyes of the Hawk, Slaughter, The Far Canyon, and The Way of the Coyote. Kelton holds lifetime achievement awards from Western Writers

Editorial Reviews

Kelton's 1974 novel is based on the story of Gregorio Cortez, a Mexican fugitive who was the object of the largest manhunt in Texas history. With a film of Kelton's The Good Old Boys currently in production, his star may be on the rise.

Library Journal

Kelton has long been one of the most prolific and dependable of western writers. In this reprint of a 1974 paperback original, he adapts the true-life escapades of Mexican legend Gregorio Cortez, whose flight from a massive manhunt around the turn of the century became a symbol of strained Mexican-American relations in Texas. Kelton renames his protagonist but keeps the outline of the Cortez story. It begins, essentially, with a young horseman named Fernandez shooting a lawman during a misunderstanding. Fernandez takes off, eluding the most massive manhunt (at times, more than 300 men) in Texas history. There are dusty Tex-Mex similarities to "The Fugitive". But Fernandez is not innocent; justifiably or not, he did shoot the sheriff. On the other hand, his pursuers are not all honorable men. Racism hovers over every element of the story. Kelton's morality play poses daunting ethical questions while providing edge-of-the-seat suspense.

Wes Lukowsky