The Men From Echo Creek

Had the potential to be a good old fashioned queer Western, with a young hero who inherits a huge ranch after his father's untimely death, facing off against a rich, greedy bad guy who wants the land by means fair or foul. I was expecting that the conflict would be woven into the romance between the hero and his new, even younger ranch hand. Unfortunately, Walker chooses to focus the vast majority of the plot on the love story. Granted it's heartwarming to see two queer virgins explore the physical and emotional feelings they have never dared act on until now. But the threat of losing the land to the bad guy just kind of fizzles, so that more pages can be devoted to the young men's discovery that butter makes butt stuff better. Felt like a missed opportunity to me, but then again this is N.R. Walker, not [a:Mary Renault 38185 Mary Renault https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1378247630p2/38185.jpg].