Creeback

CREEBACK

as by A. Dorman Leishman

A Black Horse Western from Hale, June 2010

When former soldier Jim Rennie finds a dead body at the bottom of Sandy Creek he realizes that his quiet life in Creeback valley is over. Reluctantly he begins to investigate. The dead boy was not one of the settlers nor a cattleman; nor was he part of their bitter land dispute. Nevertheless, Rennie suspects that the boy’s death is central to the feud.

Settlers’ homes are being burned and Tom Rutherford, the man responsible, seems too powerful to be stopped. But Jim Rennie knows he must find a way….

This book contains much smaller print than the majority of Black Horse Westerns, meaning the reader gets a much longer story than usual. The blurb above indicates that this could be just another range war type of tale, and in a way it is, but the author has a few surprises in store to keep his story fresh, gripping, and entertaining.

Having his hero, Jim Rennie, not wanting to get involved in the troubles around Creeback makes a change from having a hero who just steps right in to right wrongs without a second thought. Of course the reader knows that Rennie will be drawn into the conflict but it takes some doing. Both sides believe he’s working for the other. Rennie gets beaten up and knocked unconscious numerous times and plods through the action in a weakened state for most of the book. There’s plenty of well-written action. Surprises as to who is riding for the land-grabber and just who that person is. A surprise, too, as to just what Tom Rutherford’s role in all this is.

I don’t know anything about A. Dorman Leishman, and this is the first BHW to carry that authors name, but what I do know is I enjoyed this book very much and can only hope it’s not too long before another is published.

Creeback has an official release date of June 30th but should be available now from all the usual Internet booksellers.