The tall stranger

Don't ever say I don't venture out from my comfort zone in my reading. I finished my first real Western (unless Lonesome Dove counts). And it's a Louis L'Amour, the John Wayne of Western writers.

I knew where this book was going from page one. No doubt about it...it's a guy book, through and through. Fellow (Mercy! His name is ROCK Banyon...please!) joins up with a wagon train headed west. The man who's guiding the wagon train is Mort Harper. Harper has persuaded the train to take a southern route, a route that Rock Banyon knows will lead straight to the Salt Lake Desert. Harper and Banyon both fall for the same girl and they squabble back and forth until they reach a tranquil valley owned by a rancher Banyon knows won't take kindly to having strangers move in. Banyon can't quite figure out what Harper's scheme is, but he lurks around on the fringes as the wagon train decides to appropriate some of the rancher's land.

There's some gun fights, some fist fights, a saloon, beautiful farm land, and a pretty girl. You feel pretty confident early on that the good guy's gonna win out. And, apparently, that's a Western.