Page Count:  368

Author:  Ralph Compton

Publisher:  St. Martin's

ISBN:  0-312-92815-7

Category:  Fiction

Genre:  Historical Western

Dove's (Personal) Review:  Book One of a thirteen-book series (known as The Trail Drive Series), "The Goodnight Trail" is for serious Western fans! Though Compton's work is classified as fiction, his stories are based on actual events (and characters in some cases, such as Charles Goodnight, inventor of the chuck wagon, Texas Ranger, and trail captain of various northbound cattle drives).
     The Goodnight Trail introduces us to Benton McCaleb, Will Elliot, and Brazos Gifford (former Texas Rangers) as they team up with Charles Goodnight to "round up" cattle to drive from Fort Belknap, Texas to Cheyenne, Wyoming. On the way north, Monte & Rebecca Nance (a brother/sister pair), and Goose (a Lipan Apache indian) join the cattle-drive, adding a variety of colorful circumstances to the story.
     If you're not "into" horses, cattle, cowboys, round-ups, quick drawin' gun fights, and ranching, this is not a book for you. Again, The Trail Drive Series is for serious Western fans only, which means... only if you long to experience the open range, big-sky, 10,000-head longhorn cattle herds, driving through the free country of the American West, this is a book you MUST READ!
     Ralph Compton's work is meticulously assembled, painstakingly researched, and delivered with a genuine flavor of the West. Taking place in the mid to late 1800s, The Goodnight Trail gives the reader a first-hand glance at how the West was won, and then gradually populated by cattle-rich ranchers, and money-hungry, industrial-minded business men as they strove to stretch the railroad from coast to coast.
     McCaleb and his outfit are forced to deal with sand-storms, torrential rains, floods, stampedes, blizzards, severe wounds, sickness, and Comanche indian raids throughout their journey... all of which are very real happenings during the famous cattle drives of that era.
     For all of you reading this review right now, let me ask you this: Do you remember, back when you were a little kid, how one of your favorite activities was playing "Cowboys and Indians" with all your neighborhood pals? How you were so caught up in the adventurous mystique of it all? The literary genious of Ralph Compton reconnects us with our roots, our heritage, our American pride, and with our country's early establishment. He takes us back to a time before barbed-wire, when Indians and buffalo roamed free, and when men did in fact grow up to be cowboys.
     If you do decide to read this book, you'd better get ready to do a lot of reading, for once you finish this one, the cravings for the remaining 12 books are impossible to ignore. Take my advice... when you're in the bookstore, don't buy just the first book. Buy at least the first three, so once you finish this one, you can immediately start the next one! You're gonna want to! Trust me!
     Riveting! Adventurous! Realistic! A true masterpiece! TWO-THUMBS-UP!!! GOLD-STAR!!!