Her father's death has left Jane Withersteen in possession of the richest land holding in the Cottonwoods, a Mormon village on the 1871 Utah frontier.  Most importantly, Amber Spring runs through her property and so she controls the water supply that makes possible the rolling fields of purple sage.  But now the Mormon church wants to gain contol of the spring by forcing an unwilling Jane to marry Elder Tull.  They've been steadily increasing the pressure on her and as the novel opens, Tull and his henchmen have come to arrest Venters, the Gentile foreman on her ranch.  Outnumbered and outgunned, Jane prays for deliverance.  Just as Tull is about to whip Venters, a rider in black appears--Lassiter, the scourge of the Mormons.

Lassiter is an archetype of the mythic Western hero.  In him we see the origins of both Shane and Ethan Edwards (from The Searchers, Amos in the novel)--a lone gunmen fighting for Justice, he has descended upon Mormon Utah with a vengeance, obsessively searching for the sister who was kidnapped by a Mormon proselytizer.

Jane takes him on as a ranch hand, but makes him swear to forsake violence.  Inevitably (as in High Noon), events force her to release him from his oath.

Despite an extremely harsh view of Mormons, this is one of the truly great Westerns; a must read.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (A) Orrin C. Judd

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