Bowie's Mine: A Story of the Buckalew Family

From the pen of Elmer Kelton, published first in 1971 comes a tale, a legend, still whispered about in Texas about a lost mine belonging to Jim Bowie. He was a citizen of Texas, had a Mexican wife, when it was still under the control of Mexico, and of course died at the Alamo. In an author's note Mr. Kelton says, "That it ever existed is open to question. It does not really er. The adventure is in the search, not in the finding." Elmer Kelton's book are always an adventure filled with well crafted characters, plenty of actions, and truism of the time and place the story takes place. Daniel Provost is one of those characters. We follow him as his intention is to have one adventure before settling down to a "life behind a plow". The time frame of the story is when Texas was a Republic of its own. And there is much unrest and uncertainty in the land. Daniel finds himself among many unsavory characters, and one, Milo Seldon weaves tales to about faraway places which Daniel wishes he could go. Much happens in this book. It is fast paced and well constucted as 99 percent of Mr. Kelton's work was.

This is not Kelton's strongest story. It is somewhat steriotypical and predictable. With that said, it is still and enjoyable book with plenty of action.

This is one of a short series of books written about members of the same family. My husband really enjoys novels which contain familiar characters. Elmer Kelton is one of his favorite authors.