The Texas Rangers have always been of interest to the public. Television followed them from the series Laredo in the 1960s through the miniseries Lonesome Dove in the eighties to the recently completed run of Chuck Norris’s Walker, Texas Ranger. The past few years have seen the publication of the nonfiction books The Men Who Wear the Star by Charles M. Robinson III and Lone Star Justice by Robert M. Utley (both of which I recommend, by the way).
The stories in this collection are meant to trace the Texas Rangers from their inception in the 1820s to the early days of the twentieth century—roughly the first hundred years of their storied history. The authors included represent the best the western genre has to offer, from the Louis L’Amour reprint (the only reprint in the book) right through to new writer Marcus Galloway’s tale of a Ranger’s pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde.
Having put together a fair number of anthologies over the years, I feel I can honestly say there’s not a bad one in this bunch. Sit back and let these writers take you on a wild ride through history, and see if you don’t agree with me.