Crossroads

By Logan Winters

Hale, April 2015

When a wealthy rancher mistakes K. John Landis and a cantankerous ex-saloon girl for an honourable couple and offers them the opportunity to make some much-needed money, the pair jump at the chance.

Now, in charge of the rancher’s flighty daughter Landis is dragged down into the violent underworld of Crossroads. He had feared leaving town without a nickel in his jeans, now he fears he might never leave again.

As the author reveals this early on I don’t think I’m giving too much away when I say this story revolves around trafficking young girls. Landis finds himself up against a powerful saloon owner with only a small number of people backing him, three of whom are women, all with different reasons to see the saloon owner brought to justice, in fact one just wants to put a bullet through his head. It isn’t only this girl who wants revenge, things are further complicated by a vengeance driven father.

Logan Winters’ brings together a great selection of people in this extremely fast moving tale that sees Landis think he’s in control of his own destiny, but it soon becomes obvious to both him and reader that it’s the women who are moulding his future. When strong personalities clash there’s bound to be some excellent dialogue and Winters excels in writing this in a believable way.

The story builds well to its exciting climax that sees a quickly dreamt up plan of battle put into action that due to its haste doesn’t quite unfold as hoped. Winters brings the story to a close satisfactory and finishes with a uplifting, and humorous final paragraph that left me feeling thoroughly entertained and looking forward to reading his next book, something I won’t have to wait for as Logan Winters is a pseudonym used by Paul Lederer and he has a second book, The Trail to Trinity, published by Hale this month too under the pen-name of Owen G. Irons.