Honor at Daybreak

By: Elmer Kelton

Narrated by: Jack Garrett

From one of the West's greatest living storytellers, winner of numerous awards, including the Spur, the Golden Saddleman, and the Western Heritage Award, here is Elmer Kelton's magnificent new novel of the wildcat West Texas oil boom of the 1920s.

It used to be that the worst crime in Caprock was moonshining or lying about your Saturday night date on Sunday morning - until someone struck oil. Now the scent of the stuff has brought every dreamer, drifter, and two-bit swindler to town. Among them is the frontier mobster Big Boy Daugherty, who warns any who'd stand in his way: Get out or die. One man will do neither.

Sheriff Dave Buckalew is a man too proud to give up and too stubborn to give in. He liked his town the way it was - before the bootleggers, brothels, and fortune-seeking roustabouts - and so did a lot of other hardworking, decent folk. Together they'll fight to win back their town - and their future. This is the story of their heroic stand.

©1991 Elmer Kelton (P)2018 Recorded Books

Very interesting history of early oil production

Nice low key romance and historical early oil production. No superman characters, but believable and interesting.

GREAT

The story starts a little slow, but I am so glad I continued listening. The narration is so great it wasn't hard to listen until the story picked up. When talking about the book, it's strange to explain the genre since it's not really a western, but it's also not modern. I could listen to this town's story several times.

Excellent story about the early Texas oil boom

I'm sure Mr Kelton did some research about the early days of Texas oil boom towns, but I'm guessing he heard a lot the stories first hand considering he was born in far west Texas in 1926.

This book is a lot about good vs evil, small town justice and redemption even, though not for all perhaps. Yes, some of it is what we would consider "corny" at times and I'll admit to a few eye rolls too. There is a good amount of humor thrown in along but sometimes you had to catch it.

I found myself creating chores in the house so I could listen and the last hour or so is especially good, when it all comes to a head as they say.

After the book ended I couldn't help but wonder what happened to some of the characters, but this was a "standalone" book that you will recognize names from previous books.

I'd have to say this is one of his best works. Yes I am a Kelton fan but ironically what is probably his most famous work, The Time It Never Rained, is one that I could not finish. Perhaps it's time I gave it another try.

Texas History Brought back to life .

Once again Texas history is brought back to life through Elmer Kelton’s story telling even though the characters are not real the story most certainly was played out through boom towns across Texas.

good book

narrator was great. some parts were aggrevating due to what was happening. not a book that should be listened to with little ears.

Decent

I have read a fair amount of Kelton, and while this story is pretty good, it's not his best. Also, The narrator's delivery I found to be a bit awkward.

Not the same

This later book was not up to the earlier standards of Elmer Kelton’s earlier true western folklore genre. The plot drug on with so much repetition that I lost interest. Several story lines and conversations became redundant. The redeeming part of the book was description of oil boom and bust of early days of exploration and drilling.