8 h 48 minAudiobook10 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
On the Arizona range, a man's name can be as uncertain as the justice he seeks.
In Shoe-Bar Stratton, Joseph Bushnell Ames brings you into Arizona cattle country, where horses and ranch work share the ground with hard choices. A man's name, his past and his sense of justice face a test. Identity is not just a question of what others call him, but of who he really is.
Deception gives this Western adventure its central tension. Against the dry, wide country of the Southwest, the story explores mistaken identity, honor and the cost of false appearances. The range is more than scenery: it shapes the choices people make, and the struggle to tell right from wrong.
What you’ll discover
- The wide Arizona range Enter cattle country where the landscape sets the terms of a classic Western adventure.
- A name under question Follow a story that puts a man's identity and his past at its heart.
- Deception with a cost Explore the uneasy ground between what people seem to be and who they are.
- Honor in hard choices Consider what a sense of justice demands when a man's own name is in doubt.
- Life on the ranch Find horses, ranch work and open country woven into a tale of identity and justice.
Who will love it
Readers who like Western ranch stories full of rustlers, bunkhouse suspicion, desert chases and mysteries, plus a warm romance and a hero with a secret to keep.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A rancher returns to a stolen ranch
- A girl owner and a hired hand
- A bunkhouse that does not want him
- A wounded man tells of a plot
- A knife in the dark and a letter to the sheriff
- Plots with blackleg, a forged letter and a fight
- The north pasture and the gray motorcar
- The secret, a trap and a girl taken
- What the story is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Buck StrattonA Texas cattleman back from France with a lost year behind him, hiding his name while he works out who is robbing his ranch.
- Mary ThorneThe young woman who runs the Shoe-Bar, honest and brave, who wants to keep the ranch she loves and is sure of her father's fairness.
- Tex LynchThe handsome, smooth foreman who runs the ranch for his own reasons and will stop at nothing to keep his secret.
- Bud JessupA loyal young cowhand who refuses to be driven off, and who becomes Buck's cheerful ally.
- Rick BemisBud's friend, wounded by a shot in the night, who fears the outfit and the foreman.
- Mrs. ArcherMary's tiny, sharp-eyed aunt, who looks fragile and proves to have a steel nerve.
- Jim HardenbergThe Perilla sheriff, a lean, hawk-faced lawman who wants proof before he acts.
- Stella ManningA bright nurse who knew Buck on the ship home and keeps a friendly eye on him.
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- Audiobook
- 8 h 48 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Shoe-Bar Stratton
by Joseph Bushnell Ames · 1922
A rancher back from the war finds his ranch run by a stranger and signs on as a hired hand under a false name.
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In short
Shoe-Bar Stratton is a Western novel by Joseph Bushnell Ames, set on an Arizona cattle ranch soon after the First World War. It follows Buck Stratton, a Texas rancher who comes home from France with a healed head wound and a lost year he cannot remember.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A rancher returns to a stolen ranch
Buck Stratton gets off a little train at Paloma Springs, Arizona, in the heat of September. He is tall and lean, and a fresh scar hides in his hair. He has been in a hospital for months, and one whole year of his life has vanished from his mind. The last thing he remembers is a charge through Belleau Wood.
The doctors explained that a bullet pressed on the part of his brain that holds memory, and that an operation has now relieved it. He was carried in without his identification tag, so hospital staff called him Robert Green. Worse, his real name appeared on a list of the dead or missing. He has no family to have grieved, which is the one mercy in it.
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What is Shoe-Bar Stratton about?
It follows a rancher who comes home from the First World War with no memory of a year and finds his Arizona ranch claimed by another family. He works there under a false name to uncover who is behind the trouble.
Who is Tex Lynch in Shoe-Bar Stratton?
Tex Lynch is the handsome foreman of the Shoe-Bar ranch. He seems efficient, but he drives off honest cowhands, lets rustling go on and watches the new hired man closely.
Is Shoe-Bar Stratton a true story?
No. It is a work of fiction by Joseph Bushnell Ames, set after the First World War, though it uses real details of ranching, trail riding and cattle disease for its setting.
The author
Joseph Bushnell Ames
1878–1928 · American novelist
Joseph Bushnell Ames was an American novelist who was born in 1878 and died in 1928. He lived in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He wrote novels in English, including Shoe-Bar Stratton, which was published in 1922.
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