Former thief and wanted man Carson Stone dreams of a peaceful life on a ranch built by his own hands, but dreams don’t always come without a steep price. To earn a stake, Carson rides west to collect the reward on a claim-jumper. The land is beautiful, but times are hard as the territory is ravaged by the latest Indian war and a mining boom gone bust.
When Stone steps in to defend a family ambushed by murdering marauders, he makes a terrifying discovery: one of the hired killers carries a death list full of names and dollar amounts. But the names on this list belong to upstanding citizens, not criminals. When the local sheriff is gunned down in broad daylight, Carson takes on the one job he never wanted – pinning on a lawman’s tin star to protect the innocent.
A gang of ruthless killers are storming back to finish their work – and Carson Stone has just moved to the top of the death list.
The story begins with a very rich man, Bill Cartwright, hiring a vicious group of cold-hearted killers and handing them the death list. We aren’t told why he wants the people on the list killed. One of the assassins is a beautiful woman, who introduces herself as just Kate, and Cartwright decides to keep her by his side. If you’ve read many westerns, it isn’t too hard to work out why Cartwright wants people killed, and the author soon exposes that reason, but nothing is straight-forward as it seems Kate is playing Cartwright and double-cross is looming.
The author introduces many other great characters, Carson and the bounty hunter he rides alongside are just two. It seems they also have history with Kate, who they know as Lady Pain. There are other characters that seem to come from Carson’s past which began to make me wonder if this is really the first book in the Carson Stone series as is announced on the cover, but more of that later.
The story is told at pace and the tension mounts as the author reveals the double-crosses to the reader but not the characters. Carson also finds himself falling in love as he becomes the centre of a love triangle. Carson doesn’t have much time for the ladies though as there’s too much killing to try to stop. From crooked lawmen to the psychopathic Englishman who likes using a knife on his victims, and it looks like Carson’s lady friends are in his sights.
Flimsy, desperate plans are put into place and just as quickly discarded before Carson finds himself facing Cartwright in what turns out to be a very bloody final showdown. That’s not the end though, as there’s still the Englishman and Lady Pain to deal with.
This book was a great introduction to a new western hero that I think everyone who likes westerns will enjoy. Nate Morgan is a pseudonym for Victor Gischler, an author who is perhaps better known for his work with Marvel Comics.
Due to the amount of backstory touched on between various characters I do wonder if Dead Man’s Trail is really the first book in the series. A second book, A Short Rope for a Tall Man is due out in April 2023, so, unless that book is a flashback tale then it would seem that the publisher may have put them out in the wrong order as the blurb for the second book indicates it tells the story about how all the characters in this one get to know each other.
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