Zane Grey: Three Complete Novels: Riders of the Purple Sage, The Rainbow Trail, & The Lone Star Ranger

I still gave this book a 5 because it does contain two of the best novels Zane Grey ever wrote, Riders of the Purple Sage and its sequel, The Rainbow Trail, which completes the first novel by answering some questions every reader of Riders has wondered about through the years--What ever happened to Lassiter and Jane? For years I had wondered about the title, Riders of the Purple Sage, until I came to the conclusion that the title referred to Bern and Bess who out rode Elder Tull's "posse" to escape. Both stories are excellent. Having said that I cannot give Lone Star Ranger such a high rating. It is only a three or four at best. When this book, which was a best seller, and considered by many to be one of Zane Grey's best was being edited and prepared by Harpers for publication, it actually was created by Harpers from two previously written novels which until the late 1990's had never been published. These two books, Rangers of the Lone Star and The Last of the Duanes are both far superior to Lone Star Ranger. For one thing the heroes love interest disappears in the second half of the book completely. And we all know Zane Grey wrote romances, so where's the romance? All in all, if a person is interested in collection all the different editions of Zane Grey's work then this book is worth purchasing.

Fun easy escapist read. If you like the west and westerns, plus you can be OK with a bit a dated information This is a great book. I think some people will find the prejudice against Mormons out of date, but just read the published date to get a point of reference. Zane Grey actually lived out in this area when he wrote these books and the feeling of it comes through in the writting.