When the A.A. Western Detective Agency needs to hunt men down, it turns to its toughest operatives: former cavalrymen Oswin Diehl and Ira Hoop and their Mescalero Apache scout Eskaminzim. So, when the Double-A is asked to catch bank robbers fleeing across Missouri toward the Indian Territories, it sends the three to head the gang off. Along for the hard ride is Hoop’s wife and Eskaminzim’s sister, Onawa, who’s tired of waiting around to learn who won’t be coming home from the A.A.’s latest assignment.
But when the four reach Missouri, they learn that there’s much more at stake than the holdings of a single bank. The “gang” they’re after is actually a company of former Confederate Cherokees—and they’re backed by a powerful cabal of conspirators bent on avenging the South’s defeat in the Civil War.
What starts out as a chase to track down bandits turns into a battle for the future of the country…one our outnumbered heroes can’t possibly hope to win.
It’s great to see the second book in the Double-A Western Detective Agency series come out so soon after the first one. Hired Guns was a great read and I was left eagerly looking forward to another book featuring Diehl, Hoop, and Eskaminzim.
The first part of No Hallowed Ground sets up the twisting plot superbly. Diehl and his companions wondering just what they’ve got themselves in to as they pursue the bank robbers in a mission to retrieve the contents of an ice-cream wagon that is being used by the robbers to transport their loot. Each time they met a new person the mystery deepens and it becomes clear that they haven’t been told the truth, but they’ve been assigned to the case and will do their best to get the bank’s property back. It’s only when the second part of the book is reached that the outrageous reality is discovered and the race to stop the gang becomes even more desperate. Trouble is things aren’t going to be that straight-forward as the author has more surprises waiting for his heroes and readers that will add more complications to the mission.
There’s a lot of humorous observations throughout the story, mainly coming from Eskaminzim as he often likes to wind-up his fellow detectives and enemies alike. Having Onawa along for the ride sees Eskaminzim’s competitive side become stronger than we’ve ever witnessed before, such as when he tries to prove he is the best tracker in the group.
Action scenes come thick and fast and these violent acts are often hard-hitting and offer some nail-biting edge of the seat reading, such as those that take place in a hotel. Hockensmith regularly switches from character to character, often leaving them in cliff-hanger situations thus ensuring you’ll keep reading to find out what happens to each of them.
The final showdown is excellent as all the various factions battle for the contents of the ice-cream wagon and very few people escape the flying lead. This shootout provides some tense reading as everything is resolved in blood and fire. What happened to the loot was shocking but also made me laugh as did how the Double-A detectives decided to conclude their mission.
All I can now hope is that it isn’t too long before Steve Hockensmith writes another book about these operatives of the Double-A Western Detective Agency.
