Roy McCarthy's Reviews > Comanche Moon

I read this straight after Lonesome Dove. Loved it. It's a far cry from the perception of the Wild West which we (in the UK anyway) have from those old Saturday morning cowboys and Indians movies, Audie Murphy, John Wayne and Oklahoma (though even we suspected the latter wasn't quite real). Lonesome Dove gave us a taste of the native tribes who were by then decimated and largely unfree. Comanche Moon sees the Texas rangers take a step back and McMurtry paints a vivid picture of the Comanche way of life, their famous leaders determined to defend their tribal lands against new settlers and white rule as well as rival tribes. Much of the portrayal doesn't make easy reading with killing, cruel abuse and novel torture of captives a commonplace amusement. This book is character-driven with some wonderful portrayals - I'll choose Buffalo Hump (a real-life war chief) and the magnificent Captain Inish Scull of the Texas Rangers. But also the location, the wild and endless plains, is another winner such is the greatness of McMurtry's descriptions.