Hard to Quit

By Mark Mitten

Milford House Press, September 2017

In a boom camp like Creede, most people want to get rich either mining silver or playing cards. LG and Davis have a different plan -- sell beef. Fighting the bitter temperatures and the winter storms of the Colorado high country, they string wire and bring in cattle. But there are things more dangerous than the weather. Having run out of luck and out of Denver, con man Soapy Smith brings his gang up to Creede to start over. His vision of success if different than anyone else's, and it involves rigging the odds in his favour. No matter who it affects, or how far he must reach.

Bringing back a couple of characters from his previous western, Sipping Whiskey in a Shallow Grave, Mark Mitten once again tangles their storyline with a number of others that are all seemingly unconnected to begin with. Mitten also includes flashbacks to tell of Horace Tabor’s rise to fortune. Nearly all chapter’s switch between the various characters, this technique urging you to continue reading to find out what happens next to these people.

I’ve already mentioned Horace Tabor, aka The Silver King, and he isn’t the only real-life person Mitten brings into this fast-paced story for his fictional characters to deal with, there is also Jefferson “Soapy” Smith and includes his prize package soap racket that earnt him is nickname of Soapy. Bat Masterson and Bob Ford have major roles to play and Mitten tells of the factual events involving their lives in Creede truthfully and entertainingly. 

Another storyline follows Kahopi, a Hopi native, searching for his father and the trail leading to the discovery of the man he believes to be this man is a fascinating as any other story-thread the book contains.

Although this book does contain some gun-play it is more about greed and the political or bullying tactics the various characters try to use for financial game and these are the elements of the tale that really grabbed my attention and pulled me into the story, gripping material indeed.

Mark Mitten thoughtfully includes a basic character list at the beginning of the book and a much more complete one at the end.

This book has been shortlisted as a finalist for Best Western Novel in the 8th annual Peacemaker Awards.