Bo Creel and Scratch Morton are mighty proud. They managed to deliver five mail-order brides to the New Mexico mining town of Silverhill in one piece. The town is so grateful, they want to make Bo their marshal and Scratch his deputy. Bo and Scratch are happy to accept the job – and even happier to attend the weddings of the fine young women they brought here….
Cecilia has two young suitors – a well-off rancher and a low-born miner – but one of them is not what he seems. Tomboyish Rose has gotten herself roped into a cow-rustling scheme – with the wild young buck who’s stolen her heart. Luella has a not-so-secret admirer of her own, a former journalist who’s making headlines – with a gang of Mexican bandits. And the refined Jean Parker thinks she’s finally found a suitable match in this raucous boomtown. But it turns out her educated doctor has a dishonorary degree – in killing.
With marriage prospects like these, Bo and Scratch will have to fight tooth and nail to keep the ladies safe and sound – and a real shotgun wedding is about to begin.
Beginning shortly after the end of the first book, this story picks up the threads that were left hanging at the close of that previous volume. You don’t need to have read the earlier work as the author explains enough backstory to fill new readers in on just what has gone before.
Switching regularly between the cast members and often leaving them in precarious situations, the author ensures you’ll keep reading as you’ll need to know what happens next. At times we get longer sections as the major storylines are dealt with in gripping action scenes. Plotlines include rustling, intimidation, brutal murders, revenge, stagecoach robberies, masked identities and kidnapping. Bo and Scratch sure have their work cut out to keep the five young women safe and stop the crimes, something our two old-timers do with style, grit, fast guns and a touch of humour.
Like the first book, this one is a very enjoyable read. Its pacing is excellent and each set piece seems more deadly than the last, culminating in and exciting and violent gunfight. The very end of the story appears to set us up for the third book in the series, Till Death, that is scheduled for publication in October 2021. I for one am really looking forward to that.
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