C. J. Petit

The following is excerpted from my review at Goodreads:
I really wanted to like this book. It appealed to me as a simple western story that I could read between more serious works.
Our hero, a lawyer and a Texas Ranger, gets a message that his brother has been shot to death in his own saloon in another town, so the hero goes there to administer justice to the evil doers. Simple story. Entertaining...mostly. The hero is a good man, morally upright, honest even for a Texas lawyer, but too good. I think the author forgot that 1800s Texas is not 2000s socially just, as far as it goes anyway. This man has the wisdom, experience of a 50 year old. He sounds like a 50 yr. old, but we find out he is in his mid thirties. I don't believe it.

The most fat in this story begins just after the hero proposes marriage to the widow whose ranch he saved from the evil ranch thieves. The story should have ended with the proposal and acceptance of marriage, and that would have been a fine ending. But the author decided that we had to have all the details of the marriage and moving house etc. to the point where I just stopped reading. It all became a bit too much. I had put the book aside once before, but gave it another look, hoping it might still turn out to be the book I wanted. I think Mr. Petit can tell a good story. He has written a lot of them. I intend to read at least two his others: The Photographer, and Rusty and Bug. I just hope he hasn't treated all of his writing as so precious that nothing need be cut.… (mais)