COYOTE WINTER

It all takes place out in the Kansas prairies, in a post-Homestead Act settlement. Whit Matthews focuses his affections on a coyote and on his half-breed brother Talt. The animal was rescued as an orphaned pup, carefully tended and kept as a pet, but eventually went its own wild way. And so it is with Talt, who bitterly claims to be a misfit with either half of his family, and who inevitably leaves home every year to the open West, where he catches and trades horses. The story perhaps follows a little too pointedly in the groove of this parallel, and is strongest for its excellent regional detail. Whit's father is both a lawyer and the editor of the local newspaper; the fight he spearheads against many of the local citizens who have been misled to believe that a railroad bond would be a sure source of profit shows the town off to dramatic advantage.