The Trailsman #133

SAGE RIVER CONSPIRACY

as by Jon Sharpe

Signet, January 1993

Skye Fargo thought he had seen everything in the West – but he had never seen anything like the town of New Dublin in the wilds of Montana. Everyone in this isolated enclave was Irish, including the beautiful widow who called Skye by an Irish name as she gave him a warm welcome. The Trailsman couldn’t believe this place was real – until the bullets started flying, the corpses started piling up, and Skye had to fight terror with terror if he didn’t want to wind up pushing up shamrocks…

The first chapter throws up many questions, such as why won’t the men Fargo guides to New Dublin tell him anything about themselves? Why does the town have a wall around it like a fort? Why do the Blackfoot attack such a large body of men when normally they’d only attack if the numbers favoured them? Why, when Fargo arrives in town, does everybody call him by a different name and not believe that he is really Skye Fargo? And what should he do about the marriage that is set for him in two days time?

As is true for the majority of the books in this series this one is well written and all the early questions help to pull you into the story, making it hard to put down until you know the answers - trouble is some answers lead to more questions!

There is one bit (about a cliff near the end) that I found hard to believe would happen so effectively but this didn’t dampen my enjoyment of the tale that charges along at a fast pace and is filled with plenty of action.