By F. J. Harvey The Outcast (Gunsmoke Westerns) The outcast is "Lew Lansborough"a young man born to Mormon parents who takes to the vengeance trail when they are murdered by "Gentiles", a band of whom also kill his aunt and uncle and inflict serious harm on his friend and cousin "Cal". The bulk of the Mormon community join him to turn the other cheek, but so strong is his desire for retribution that he feels unable to do so. The feeling grows in him that he is tainted and a bringer of death and destruction to those he loves and holds dear.
The book is the story of his redemption and restoration both within the community and in his own eyes, a feat accomplished by his leadership of a Mormon wagon train bound for "Zion". The journey sees conflict with Indians, floods and a lawman who is hunting Lew for murder, not to mention some amorous but chaste dalliance with a fetching Mormon female.
The work is almost two books in one. It opens like a "noir" novel, all taut, tart prose and with a palpable sense of bleakness both emanating from within Lew and present in the landscape and countryside round about. It then shifts gear into a more conventional Western scenario with the requisite ingredients of the wagon train saga stirred deftly into the mix.
The book is the story of his redemption and restoration both within the community and in his own eyes, a feat accomplished by his leadership of a Mormon wagon train bound for "Zion". The journey sees conflict with Indians, floods and a lawman who is hunting Lew for murder, not to mention some amorous but chaste dalliance with a fetching Mormon female.
The work is almost two books in one. It opens like a "noir" novel, all taut, tart prose and with a palpable sense of bleakness both emanating from within Lew and present in the landscape and countryside round about. It then shifts gear into a more conventional Western scenario with the requisite ingredients of the wagon train saga stirred deftly into the mix.
