The Way Station

By Owen G. Irons

A Black Horse Western from Hale, September 2011

Cameron Black knows that it is time to pack away his guns. He and Virginia need to put their past behind them and when Cameron accepts a job running a quiet way station in the desert, it seems like the perfect way to forget about old enemies.

But Cameron soon realizes it is never that easy to leave trouble behind. A stagecoach arrives at the way station. On it is an outlaw smuggling fifty thousand in gold and a young woman named Becky Grant, who is on the run from a rejected suitor. On their trail is Sheriff Beaton, Becky’s wide-eyed suitor and rival bandits in pursuit of treasure.

Now, as a menacing dust storm gathers that threatens to keep them captive in the way station, Cameron Black knows he must use his guns once more….

June 2009 saw the publication of an Owen G. Irons book called The Outpost, which I reviewed here. That book ended with a question mark over the future of two of its leading characters. The Way Station picks that story up and answers that question and once more Cameron Black and Virginia find themselves fighting to stay alive.

Owen G. Irons brings together a great set of characters, each having an important role to play in the outcome of this story. As the different plot threads bring everyone to the way station some of threads entwine making this book difficult to put down before discovering how everything will play out. This in turn leads to plenty of action as outlaws, lawmen, runaways, and bandits trying to go straight, clash.

The book is extremely well paced and all threads are neatly tied up by the end, once again strengthening my belief that Owen G. Irons is one of the best Black Horse writers working today. September was a treat for fans of this author’s work – real name Paul Lederer – as a second book was published under his other pseudonym of Logan Winters: The Killing Time.