Derailed

By Owen G. Irons

Hale, April 2012

In an unimaginable turn of events an outlaw gang had kidnapped the Colorado & Eastern train, leaving the passengers afoot in an early winter blizzard.

Tango and Ned Chambers are the men hired to prevent such things happening. They are left alone on the frozen prairie with the wealthy and attractive widow Lady Simpson and a brother of the vice-president of the United States as their charges.

Now all they have to do is recover the train, get through to Denver, and bring to justice those responsible for the outrage, without allowing harm to come to Lady Simpson and the politician.

Owen G. Irons has come up with an unusual twist to a kidnapping plot by not having humans taken for ransom, but a train. Why? I can’t spoil the reason by revealing that here, but like me, I believe you’ll have fun finding out, for this is a very entertaining book full of action and excitement.

If you like trains you’ll find plenty of enjoyment here, for most of the book revolves around the train in question. Obviously its kidnapping and then an attempt to steal it back, and how to get a train up a mountain side along snow covered tracks for instance.

Tango and Chambers make for a great couple of heroes who find themselves having to cope with getting the train back and/or saving the abandoned passengers. Both Lady Simpson and the vice-presidents’ brother have their parts to play, and it soon becomes evident that they could both be targets for different reasons.

I find Owen G. Irons (a pseudonym used by Paul Lederer) to be very readable. He writes fast paced books with plots that often have a twist or two waiting to surprise the reader, and this story does just that. After finishing Derailed I once again find myself eagerly looking forward to his next book.

Derailed is officially released tomorrow, but is available now.