Set against the savagely sweeping panorama of a lawless Arizona Territory circa 1880, 'The Difference' has many of the surface trappings of a standard Western: young man swindled out of his rightful inheritance by cattle baron has to fight the good fight against the odds and learn to be a man.
However, from finding the first shocking realisation that the line between good and evil is being wildly overstepped, Willeford systematically dismantles the classic American cowboy myth. His genius is that his protagonist, the young outlaw Johnny Shaw - a self-absorbed, amoral hero whose need to seek vengeance overrides any latent sense of "honor" - is drawn with compassion and vulnerability.
