Shane

This is the story of Shane, a mysterious but righteous man who is trying to part ways with a violent past, like he used to be a law enforcer or gunman who got tired of killing. He arrives in this little settlement—so small it didn’t even have a sherif—in Wyoming in ’89 (probably 1889), right into a conflict over land. On one side is a group of farmer and rancher settlers along one side of a river; on the other is a crafty Mr. Fletcher, owner of a big ranch on the other side of the river who has some claims on the land taken up by the settlers.

When Shane rides up, he intends to just pass by. But he is taken up by Starrett, the leading settler whose opinions the others respect. Starrett convinces Shane to stay a while, working with him, though it appears Shane’s acceptance is more because of Starrett’s wife who takes an immediate liking to him.
After Fletcher wins a big contract to supply beef, he goes all out to get the settlers to leave so he could have their land for his grazing grounds. With Shane on his side, Starrett and the settlers refuse his sale offers. Then Fletcher goes and hires a killer with the intention of taking out the settlers on the flimsiest excuse. It is now left to Shane to put an end to the killing days of Fletcher’s assassin, even if it means his reliving a past he wants to escape.

This is all told from the viewpoint of Starrett’s young son Bob, to whom Shane became a hero the moment he set foot in their valley.

March 23, 2015. First read in junior high and then again in 2010 when this review was initially written. Novel first published in 1949 by Houghton Mifflin, this Bantam Books edition being published in 1980, ISBN 0-553-14475-8.