One of the great westerns by one of my favorite western writers, Ralph Compton! This is the first in the "Gunfighter" trilogy series. All three books are great but this book, number one, is the best of them all. ( )

This is a first of a series of books with Nathan Stone, gun fighter. The book really has no plot to it though it is loosely held together by his search over 6 years for the seven men that murdered his family at the end of the Civil war. Really the book is a series of running short stories as this man travels through Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mexico visiting saloons and gambling in an effort to get information on the murderers and kills them one by one. Gun fighting is a main aspect of this story....hardly 20 pages of this 480 page book goes by without Nathan killing someone, getting shot up in a close call or having a friend die from gun play. He has about 3 or so women in his life for short periods of time...he rescues them in one fashion or another but they don't last long, as it is dangerous being his girlfriend.

I was hoping for more out of this book, more than one gunfight situation after another. I enjoy reading historical fiction but other than meeting famous gunfighters and personalities every so often I did not really learn much about the old West other than it was a pretty dangerous place to live if you are Nathan Stone. Much of the book is predictable and scenes that should be climaxes rarely last more than a page or two.

If you like books on gunfighting, you will have lots to read here. I got bored with it and won't pursue the rest of the series ( )