Reviews for Marshal without a Badge

The average rating for Marshal without a Badge based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-03-17 00:00:00 Claudio Varnerin Marshall Without a Badge focuses on Marshal Mark Kennicott--a noble, strong, caring, intelligent, talented sheriff who serves his town--Cameo Crossing--and his people, without hesitation. Unfortunately, this is a western, which means he has to confront several bad hombres, the worst of whom are the town leaders who selfishly want to open up the town to the local OX rancher and his group of degenerates, so they can profit from the extra business. Little do they know the nightmare Overmeyer, the leader of the gang, has in store for them once Overmeyer has access to the town. Not much is new or ground-breaking here. Kennicott is set up by Walker Rohle, the owner of the main saloon, and a real self-serving weasel who convinces the other town leaders to suspend Marshall Kennicott, and who end up using his own deputy to throw him into jail. Once Kennicott is out of the way, the OX ranch-hands invade and nearly destroy the town. Ultimately, as is the case with every western I've ever read, the good guys win, the bad guys die, and all is well, until I pick up the next western and start the process all over again. Don't get me wrong, however...I LOVE this stuff. Westerns are the ultimate escape fiction, and provide a key to the past that many of us today long for, lawlessness and brutality and all. In this morally and politically divisive and corrupt world, westerns are a reminder that good people once governed this country, and that the good overcame the bad. I don't know that we can say that anymore. What I enjoyed about this novel is that the theme of the great frontier, unlimited freedom, and the idea that the good and noble conquer the bad and corrupt, permeates every character, every plot point, every corner of this novel. This is the second novel I've read by the author this month. I enjoy his writing, and I will read the other westerns I purchased from him. I would have liked more action, and certainly more description of the shootouts and, let me be honest, the blood and gore, but I give the author a pass this time since the story and outcome was so enjoyable. In the western genre, only a few novels are truly worthy of four stars--The Shootist and True Grit come to mind--but three stars from me for a western is very respectable and I do highly recommend this novel for those of us who love this genre. N.B. Listening to an audiobook should not count toward the Reading challenge. Reading is reading. Listening is listening. They are not the same thing.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-03-10 00:00:00 Leslie Goss I love short stories, especially well written ones. I remember some of them far longer than whole novels. Sue Miller writes beautifully about loneliness and the many permutations and combinations of love.