Mountains of No Return

THE TRAILSMAN #366

By Jon Sharpe

Signet, April 2012

The Mountains of No Return, 1861 – where death lurks around every bend in the trail.

Skye Fargo signs on to scout for the army, not to run down a bunch of AWOL soldiers. However, Luther Mace and company aren’t made for the military, but for mayhem and murder. And they’re riding hard to a place no man with any saddle sense would want to go: the Mountains of No Return. But the Trailsman is aiming to make this ride a round-trip.

Jon Sharpe presents the reader with what seems like a straight-forward track down and capture or kill a bunch of deserters story. But this is a Trailsman novel and readers of these books will know there will be more to the tale than that, particularly as the author writing as Jon Sharpe this time is David Robbins.

Teamed up with an elderly scout and a gambler the trail leads into the mountains and a run in with a small band of Utes. One of Fargo’s companions takes an arrow so they hightail it to a valley in which live the puma clan. It’s here that the story begins to get more involved and Fargo’s suspicions begin to grow.

There is plenty of action as Fargo attempts to find the deserters and uncovers a more deadly conspiracy, along with mass graves. Even though Fargo and the reader have a good idea as to what is going on, David Robbins has another surprise waiting at the end that I didn’t see coming.

The darker tones of the story and violent scenes are balanced with lighter moments of humour, most often in the form of sarcastic dialogue, but one of the best for me comes from California Jim when he explains just what kind of man he believes Fargo to be.

Mountains of No Return is an entertaining, fast moving story, that has left me eagerly looking forward to next months entry into this overall excellent series.