Louis L’Amour. The Iron Marshal (1979)

     Louis L’Amour. The Iron Marshal (1979) Tom Shanaghy grows up in the criminal section of New York City. A rumble prompts him to flee, and he ends up in a small collection of shacks and barns in the middle of Kansas. The people living there think of it as a town, and they need a marshal, since the current one is more of a crook than a protector. Tom takes on the job despite his desire to take the first train back to east. A cattle rancher who wants to revenge himself for the murder of his brother, a gang of thieves planning to steal the cash and gold coming into town in anticipation of the cattle drive, a wife who wants to double cross them, the family of the previous marshal, and the gear and guns of the marshal that the town was expecting, are the complicating elements of a typical L’Amour plot. All’s well that ends well: the bad guys are caught and/or killed, Tom falls for the cutest girl and decides to stay. Average for L’Amour, in other words, a pretty good entertainment. **½