wr Benton

Review by Robert Woods, Actor

I have just finished reading an incredible western-adventure novel written by W.R. Benton and I must admit it snapped me up and wouldn't let me off the hook until I had read the last word in the epilogue. It is an excellent book with amazing characters, wonderful description of events and scenery and action you can believe. The story-line takes George Alwood III, the disinherited tenderfoot son of a wealthy and manipulative father with his best friend John, out of the protective comfort zone of a gentrified Eastern city into an adventure that begins the minute you open the book. The first leg of their journey takes them on horseback to St. Louis, Missouri where they are befriended by a pair of real mountain men, who are two of the most wonderful and real characters I have related to since I learned to read. From there it is a steady stream of interesting situations, savage yet beautiful scenery, surprises, wonderful characters and emotionally moving action. There is George's unrequited love that develops into an emotional tie with Falling Leaf, an Indian maiden he is induced to take as his woman. There is violence, but not the gratuitous kind, revenge, tenderness and honesty. All in all, it is a sweeping epic from civilization, to the plains and into the untamed Rocky Mountains that compels you to turn every page.

My grandfather was a rancher in Colorado , where I grew up and one of last of the rugged men who were responsible for taming the wild west. He liked Louis Lamour. He would have loved W.R. Benton.

War Paint is 269 pages long. If you pick it up, prepare yourself not to put it down

All The Best,

Robert Woods