West of the Pecos

by Zane Grey

First published 1937

Amazon

4.0(697)

After the American Civil War, Colonel Templeton Lambeth leaves the ruined South with his daughter Terrill and heads for Texas to rebuild their lives. Terrill has been raised to ride, shoot and work like a son, and on the trail she increasingly adopts male clothing as protection in a country where an unaccompanied young woman attracts unwanted attention.

West of the Pecos she meets the capable cowboy Pecos Smith, whose own reputation has been damaged by rustlers trying to shift suspicion onto him. Their lives become entangled with a cattle drive, dangerous crossings, stolen stock and Terrill’s concealed identity. The novel combines a frontier romance with the practical hazards of rebuilding a livelihood in post-war Texas.