Fugitive's Trail

Texas Outlaw #1

by Robert J. Conley

The thrilling saga of a boy turned gunslinger, and the legend that would chase him across the West... "I was a wanted killer, and that made me an outlaw, and I forced myself to think hard and to accept myself for just that. If I was to be an outlaw, I told myself, I'd be a hard one, and I'd be a good one. I'd be the god damnest outlaw that ever come down the pike..." Scrawny, young Melvin Parmlee lit out of Texas wearing a pair of old overalls and riding a swayback horse. His killing a man with an axe handle for shooting his dog. Out ahead lay a land of prairie, mountains, boomtowns, whores, gold and outlaws. And behind him was a long, twisty trail that was getting more crowded with enemies every day. Robert Conley's saga of Melvin Parmlee is a rollicking tale, an authentic portrait of the American West, and the gripping drama of a boy becoming a man -amongst the wildest men of all.

Genres: Westerns

360 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2000

About the author

Robert J. Conley was a Cherokee author and enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, a federally recognized tribe of American Indians. In 2007, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas.

Reviews

[John Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent storyline but could have been written better.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Fugitive's Trail" by Robert J. Conley is a light hearted Western. Kid Parmlee insistes he's no gunslinger. Don't call him a regular Billy the Kid. And yet the pile of 'corpuses' by the end of the novel passes a baker's dozen. A straightforward plot with characters I wanted to read about. And an ending that made me smile.

[Jennifer Trimble · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book I read 20+ years ago through the library. My local library got rid of their Western section since then and I couldn’t find this book for the longest time. I’d like to give it a higher rating due to nostalgia alone, but it was off and on interesting then not so much. I’ll still give this author another shot as I’ve already purchased the other two books in the series 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Elaine Platt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I occasionally read adult books and when I do they are thrillers or westerns. The dialect bothered me.

[Brian Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in a colloquial style, which takes a bit of getting used to, it tells the tale of Kid Parmlee.
After getting kicked out of home, he learns his way with a gun and finds himself pursued by the family of the first man he killed (after that person killed his pet dog).

He meets some interesting people along the way, and goes on to cement his reputation as a regular Billy the Kid.

A decent yarn, humourously told.