Honor at Daybreak

by Elmer Kelton, Joyce Gibson Roach (Afterword)

Overview

Caprock, Texas, is a sleepy cow town until oil is discovered in the 1920s. Suddenly thousands of people stream in to find their fortune. Some are honest folk like Elise and Victor Underwood, who pray for a little luck with their daily bread. But too many are two-bit swindlers. And then there’s frontier mobster Big Boy Daugherty. Sheriff Dave Buckalew faces a whole different set of circumstances as his town springs to life—in good and not-so-good ways.

The town of Caprock is loosely based on Crane in West Texas, where Kelton grew up, although Crane did not exist until the oil boom.

Honor at Daybreak represents a departure for Kelton. There is no single dominant figure. Although Sheriff Buckalew represents a quiet strength that binds his town together, this is a book in which an entire community joins together to save itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780875652634
Publisher:	TCU Press
Publication date:	04/02/2002
Series:	Texas Tradition Series , #32
Pages:	398
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Elmer Kelton is the author of almost forty novels and has won awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the Western Literature Association. His most recent work is Badger Boy. Kelton and his wife make their home in San Angelo, Texas.



Joyce Gibson Roach is an author, columnist, folklorist, and three-time winner of the Spur Award from Western Writers of America.

Editorial Reviews

Most of the elements in this aw-shucks novel about a Texas oil town in the '20s are straight from central casting. Inhabiting Caprock, a place where people say, ``If you aint's et, I'd be tickled to have your company,'' are, conveniently, the good guys: Slim McIntyre, the newly arrived, wide-eyed farm boy; Tracy Whitmore, the waitress Slim's courtin'; Dave Buckalew, the earnest sheriff who yearns for the pre-boom days; Choctaw, the brave but pithy Indian; Jolene, the straight-talkin', maternal madam; and Victor Underwood, the educated young speculator. Soon after Slim arrives, the bad guys--Big Boy Daugherty and his gangsters Turk, Irish, French and Sarge--start terrorizing the town. Despite Buckalew's efforts, no one will speak out against Daugherty, until Lydia, a prostitute, admits she saw a murder. Buckalew puts her in his witness protection program (his vacant ranch house), and falls in love with her. Meanwhile, Slim and Choctaw help the nearly bankrupt Underwood drill his last-chance well. The novel's conclusion is as subtle as an oncoming train. With 19 novels to his credit, Kelton obviously has found an audience. Here he makes no higher claim than to portray a boom town, but even for that standard, Honor at Daybreak has too much hokum, too few surprises. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly