Spring, 1850. After a brutally long winter in the Rockies, Mack Harrigan and his growing family have learned to manage the harsh realities of frontier life. Their new friends, the Shoshone, have taught them the skills they need to survive in this rugged land, from tracking and hunting to fishing and foraging. But the skills they need most are those of the Shoshone warrior, when their camp is attacked by an enemy tribe….
Sometimes there is a need for violence. This is one of those times.
The attackers are merciless. They crush the skulls of their victims. Slice off their scalps. And kidnap children as prisoners of war. The Harrigans are horrified by the bloodshed and brutality of the attack – and are determined to fight back alongside the Shoshone. But their mission to save the children will ultimately send the battling Harrigans even deeper into the wild frontier. Farther west than most dare travel. And closer to finding the American dream – if they survive….
After only a handful of pages, Matthew P. Mayo plunges the reader into the midst of a vicious battle for survival as the Shoshone camp comes under attack. The Harrigan’s are split up and the author keeps switching between them as they fight frantically to save themselves, each other, and their Shoshone friends. Most of the combat is hand-to-hand, knife-to-knife, club-to-head, and is described graphically. This has to be one of the longest opening battles I’ve read in a western as it continues for around 80 pages, yet never outstays its welcome. Then it’s straight into a desperate chase to track down and rescue the stolen children.
The second part of the book sees the Harrigan’s continue on their journey, heading towards California. As expected, there is plenty of deadly danger waiting to pounce on them. One of my favourite characters from the first book, Bearpaw Jones, makes a very welcome return and it’s through him that one of the Harrigan’s will meet a famous person and get a job offer that is difficult to turn down, but will it be taken? It’s not just humans that pose a threat to the Harrigan’s as a bear has a large part to play and Mayo writes some nail-biting sequences involving this animal.
The seeds for possible future storylines are also planted, and I can only hope that we don’t have to wait too long before a third book appears.
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