The Lone Star Ranger
Zane Grey
MP3 CD
(IDB Productions, Jan. 1, 2016)
Readers who love Western stories will be surely kept at the edge of their seats while reading The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey. The book was written and published in 1915, when Grey was already considered to be an established author of numerous successful Western narratives and indeed. The Lone Star Ranger is one of the best examples of the authorβs talent as a story-teller.The story is set in Texas, also called the Lone Star State, and it centers on a number of law enforcement officers called Rangers and their hunt for an outlaw called Buck Duane. The son of an outlaw himself, Duane knows the world of the hunted from the inside, so he is well aware of the dangers he must face when he needs to run and hide from the Rangers. He is not guilty of the crime he is accused of β he killed a man, but it was in self-defense β and he must prove his innocence to the rangers who pursue him.Duane is a tough man, but he has a soul, too β he has killed before, but all those killings affect him deeply, with the spirits of his victims haunting him all the time, especially during the time he spends contemplating while hiding from the authorities. He eventually joins the rangers and helps them catch the bank robbers and cattle rustlers that terrorize the small towns of the West in return for being pardoned by the governor for his previous crimes.The story is quick-paced and well-written, the characters are complex and Grey provides extraordinary insight into their thoughts and motivations β perhaps these are the qualities that have made the book such an excellent choice for film and theater adaptations.