Confederate Paydirt

by Robert Anderson

A Black Horse Western from Hale, February 2010

Gentleman Jim Murphy was content to play high stakes poker until he heard about the gold; Billy wanted to avoid his former confederate, tough ex-Union Sergeant Joshua O’Donnell; Seraphim Angel McCall wanted all she could get; and nobody trusted anybody. Not the best of starts when the four banded together to form an unlikely partnership to search for the long lost Confederate bullion, especially since they were up against the redoubtable Zachariah Holmes and his murderous band of Comancheros.

The trail began in Madison and led into the trackless wastes of the hostile, sun-blasted desert, where the intrigue redoubled with treacherous plots and counter plots flying as fast as the bullets. The gold may have been there, but would anybody live to retrieve it?

Robert Anderson is a new author to me, although he has had a number of Black Horse Westerns published before this one. His writing is simple and straightforward making for a fast flowing and easy read. With this book he spends quite a lot of time bringing the four main characters together and telling their back-stories, which also explains how the gold got to be hidden.

There’s not as many twists as the blurb indicates there might be, but there are a few, a couple of which I didn’t see coming, particularly the last one that concerns the fate of the gold. I’d have liked to of seen a little more made of the mistrusts between Jim, Billy, Josh, and Sera, I think this could have created more tension to the plot. There’s plenty of action with a prolonged and exciting final showdown that is very well written and very visual.

Confederate Paydirt has an official release date of February 26th but should be available now from the usual sources.