Trace Takes a Hand

By Owen G. Irons

Hale, December 2013

Texas state marshal Trace Cavanagh has taken a big gamble: taking a prisoner – a notorious convict, called Raven – from the penitentiary to assist him in tracking down the deadly Arista gang and recovering the fifty-thousand dollars in gold they stole from a copper mining enterprise.

Luke Cason, ex-gang member turned traitor, is now living isolated with his daughter Sally but it won’t be too long before the Arista’s arrive, seeking vengeance. Now Trace must do his very best to track down Regal Arista, recover the money and restore the safety of the plains.

Most of the above blurb has taken place before the start of this book, in fact the opening scenes are of the Arista’s arrival at the Cason homestead. Sally’s escape provides some tense and gripping reading and her fear of blundering into the path of three riders makes for a taut encounter.

From that moment on the story becomes a race against time as Trace attempts to get to the Arista’s before they retrieve the gold. Along the way his trust in various people will be tested as will his ability with a gun.

Owen G. Irons is a pseudonym used by Paul Lederer, a man who definitely knows how to hook a reader and keep them interested through excellent pacing, superb characters, exciting action, and plenty of twists and turns.

I’m certainly glad that Paul Lederer is a prolific writer, meaning I won’t have to wait that long before reading another of his books, under whichever of his pseudonyms it appears.