Sunday 7 July 2013

The Comanche Fights Again

By D.M. Harrison
Hale, June 2013

Mitch Bayfield, or Broke as he prefers, is kidnapped and raised as a Comanche. When, many years later, he looks for his kin he finds himself unable to settle in either world and turns his back on them all. Because a young white girl who still lives with the Comanche band is still there, he is determined to back for her.

After a bloody confrontation with the Comanche warriors, Broke and Little Bluestem are allowed to flee. But it’s just a game. And they know that capture means torture and death….

This is the second book about Broke and D.M. Harrison includes enough background in this to fill in the backstory of not just Broke but the other characters that return too, and of the relationships that they have with other, such as the now deadly animosities directed at Broke by his Comanche brothers, Black Horse and Wolf Slayer.

Once on the run from the Comanches Broke also has to deal with a gang of bank robbers and being hunted by a Cavalry patrol, this latter band is an unknown threat for much of the fast moving story.

D.M. Harrison sticks mainly with Broke but does switch to other characters every now and again which soon had me wondering how Broke and Bluestem would survive once the various protagonists came together. And most do meet up in the violent clash between Colonel Mackenzie’s troops and a mixed group of Comanche, Cheyenne and Kiowa at Palo Duro Canyon. A real life battle that took place in 1874.

Having read this story I find myself wanting to dig out the pervious book, The Comanche’s Revenge, and looking forward to the third in the series which Diana has told me she is currently planning.

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