Hell on the Border

by J.M. Thompson, Frederic Bean

The gallows of Hanging Judge Isaac Parker have stretched more outlaws necks than all the others throughout the Arkansas territory. And Leo LeMat has come to town to paint his portrait. Unfortunately, the judge has his hands full. A band of desperadoes is terrorizing the district known as Hell's Half Acre. As more gunmen drift into town, LeMat finds himself deputized in a violent landscape where his palette will need only one color: blood red.

229 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

James Matthew Thompson was a historian and theologian.

Reviews

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Leo LeMat is a painter who has done portraits of some famous western characters and now seeks to paint a picture of Judge Isaac Parker, who is nicknamed the "Hanging Judge." LeMat is also a gun for hire and well-regarded at that job, too. With his friend and colleague Jacques LeDioux, he arrives in Fort Smith, Arkansas, meets some famous western characters, appreciates the local French cuisine, helps with a series of manhunts, and starts to call on a lovely bachelorette with a lot of opinions about proper behavior and western justice.

Besides its main protagonists, "Hell on the Border" (2002) has a large number of true western characters caught up in the adventure, giving it a more entertaining style of historical fiction.

I was enjoying "Hell on the Border" until about the halfway point and then, well, I soured on it for the second half. It didn't keep its good pace or storyline and I just lost interest.

Verdict: A short, easy western with some tropey themes, romance, gunfights and responsibility learned with experience via a classic Kelton-style knightly protagonist in LeMat.

Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13