Honor at Daybreak - (Texas Tradition) by Elmer Kelton (Paperback)

About the Book

"Caprock, Texas, is a sleepy cow town where not much happened until oil is discovered in the 1920s. Suddenly the town comes alive, with thousands of people streaming into find their fortune. Some are honest folk like Elisa and Victor Underwood, who pray for a little luck with their daily bread. many are two bit swindlers. And then there's Big Boy Daugherty, a frontier mobster who corrupts and destroys everything he touches. In a town where moonshining or lying about your Saturday night date has been about the worst that happened, Sheriff Dave Buckalew now faces a whole different set of circumstances as his town springs to life in good and not so good ways. Allied with Buckalew is Slim McIntyre, a cowboy who's looking for ranch work and finds, instead, a whole lot of trouble."--

Book Synopsis

Caprock, Texas, is a sleepy cow town until oil is discovered in the 1920s. Suddenly thousands of people stream in to find their fortune. Some are honest folk like Elise and Victor Underwood, who pray for a little luck with their daily bread. But too many are two-bit swindlers. And then there's frontier mobster Big Boy Daugherty. Sheriff Dave Buckalew faces a whole different set of circumstances as his town springs to life--in good and not-so-good ways.

The town of Caprock is loosely based on Crane in West Texas, where Kelton grew up, although Crane did not exist until the oil boom.

Honor at Daybreak represents a departure for Kelton. There is no single dominant figure. Although Sheriff Buckalew represents a quiet strength that binds his town together, this is a book in which an entire community joins together to save itself.

About the Author

Elmer Kelton is the author of almost forty novels and has won awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the Western Literature Association. His most recent work is Badger Boy. Kelton and his wife make their home in San Angelo, Texas.

Joyce Gibson Roach is an author, columnist, folklorist, and three-time winner of the Spur Award from Western Writers of America.