Arkansas Bushwhackers

By Will DuRey

Hale, February 2015

Wandering ex-Union soldier Charlie Jefferson strikes up a friendship with Henry and Dave Willis in Pottersville, Arkansas. The brothers are planning to drive cattle from Texas to the logging camps in the Arkansas timberland and invite Charlie to join them. But the plan falls foul of a gang of bushwhackers called Red Masks who are terrorizing that area.

To bring the gang to justice, Charlie becomes a government agent, a role which requires all his bravery and fighting skills, and an ability to deceive people – even those he likes.

Set just after the Civil War this book deals with ex-Confederates waging war on carpetbaggers. A time when being an ex-Union soldier looking for work isn’t good for your health in this part of America.

Jefferson is looking to earn some money to take home where he hopes to be reunited with the woman he left behind when he went to war. But the Red Masks pose a massive threat to this. 

Will DuRey creates an excellent atmosphere of distrust as his action packed story races through a number of twists and turns which includes elements of mystery as to just who the Red Masks are, and once Jefferson believes he has those answers he then has to prove it.

How Jefferson brings about the demise of the Red Masks makes for some gripping reading that thoroughly entertains. After finishing the book I was left eager to read more of Will DuRey’s work, something I hope to do very soon.