Trail to Ogallala: Volume 3 (Texas Tradition)

The author did a nice job of writing a book that holds the reader's interest. He avoids the trap of falling into a "formula western" and deveolps the characters and plot nicely. I enjoyed reading it very much.

Just as described. Great transaction.

This is my third novel by Capps. I previously read The White Man's Road (1969) and A Woman of the People (1966). For my money, both of these books are better than Trail to Ogallala, which was first published in 1964. I read Trail to Ogallala right on the heels of Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer (1963). Both books are about cowboys, though Trail to Ogallala details an entire cattle drive from beginning to end. For my money, Monte Walsh was the better book (and had a real life quality about it) and this one was average. Schaefer's writing style is distinctive. Capps is good, but nothing about it that makes it stand out from the crowd. I don't remember the quality of the writing in White Man's Road & Woman of the People (mentioned above) but I think those were better stories. While Monte Walsh had a real-life feel about it; Trail to Ogallala felt very much like a novel. I see that other reviewers liked it more than me. It's a good book, decent enough to pass the time on my daily commute, but not a book I would want to read again (assuming I even had the time). It just didn't grab me. The strongest character was a goon, and so not particularly likeable. The best part of the book was what happened to the Bible-thumper.Spoiler alert / comment:Lastly, towards the end when they were somewhat lost trying to find the town of Ogallala, I found it hard to believe that they were so deserted that no one was around to ask for directions for quite a few days until they found the town on their own.