Mojave Massacre

By Scott Harris

Dusty Saddle Publishing, July 2018

Brock, Sophie and Huck are living with the Havasupai at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. But their lives are threatened by the murderous and vengeful Paiute, and Brock and Huck, seeing no alternative, race one hundred miles to a small trading outpost, hoping to buy the rifles that will give them a chance against the much larger Paiute forces.

Stumbling across four slaughtered Hopi Indians, Brock and Huck track down the murderers, and find help in very unexpected places from friends – new and old. 

This is the second book in the Grand Canyon trilogy and the fifth Brock Clemons western. 

Continuing a number of storylines from the previous book, Battle on the Plateau, makes this a must read for those who read that earlier entry into the Brock Clemons series. If you haven’t read the other book then you might prefer to start there but it isn’t essential as Scott Harris includes enough information in this one to explain what happened before.

As with his other books Scott Harris often switches from character to character with each new chapter, telling his story from many different viewpoints, and not all of them are human either. This tale mainly features Brock, Huck and Huck’s Havasupai friend, Kentaki, but Harris does include chapters or passages that keep the reader up to date with what the other main characters in the series are doing.

Scott Harris writes in an easy to read style that sweeps you up into the storyline effortlessly. Characterization is one of his strong points and his battle scenes are vivid, engrossing and at times brutally violent. This tale is very well paced and builds to its exciting conclusion that delivers everything you’ve been hoping for. Like in his previous books though, Harris has introduced new characters and hints of possible new plotlines that will ensure you’ll want to read the next book in the series, all we can hope is that he doesn’t keep us waiting too long before it appears.

Available as both paperback and ebook

Battle on the Plateau

BROCK CLEMONS #4 The Grand Canyon Trilogy #1

By Scott Harris

Dusty Saddle Publishing, May 2018

Brock, Sophie and Huck leave Dry Springs and head towards the Grand Canyon, taking with them Sophie’s father, Ray, and the young girl, Annabelle who they’ve kidnapped from an orphanage. Guided by a man called Fieldy, the small group will have to face the natural dangers of the trail and those from vicious and vengeful Paiutes.

Scott Harris continues the adventures of Brock Clemons and his family that first appeared in what is known as the Dry Springs trilogy. This fourth book is the first in the new Grand Canyon trilogy and is a must read for those who read the earlier books. You don’t need to have read the previous books to enjoy this one as the author includes enough information to fill new readers in on what has gone before, in fact a few chapters tell of what is happening to the people left back in Dry Springs.

Told through many points of view the story moves at a swift pace towards its gripping finale. Action scenes are well described as are descriptions of landscapes. New friendships are formed, one in particular leading to heartbreak which is sensitively handled by the author and will probably have readers thinking back to similar events in their own lives.

Scott Harris doesn’t hold back in dishing out the hurt or killing off some of the main characters and also includes a couple of other surprises to ensure the reader keeps turning the pages. After the final words I’ve certainly been left wondering what will happen next to the survivors so am looking forward to the next book.

Coyote Creek

BROCK CLEMONS #2

By Scott Harris

June, 2017

Brock Clemons leaves Dry Springs – and the people he’s grown to love – in search of his father, but his plans are altered when a brutal and shocking discovery in a creek bed leads him to new adventures, new friends and more than one near-death experience. As Brock navigates a series of eventful encounters with Indians, gunfighters and wealthy landowners, it leads him to evaluate where his heart truly lies. What did Brock find in Coyote Creek, and will he survive where it leads him?

This story is told mainly in the first person, through Brock Clemons, but every so often the author switches to the third person when telling his readers what other people, or animals, are doing. This allows him to introduce new characters to the series, some of whom have major parts to play in this tale, and others, I presume, that will have more significant roles in the third Brock Clemons adventure.

I mentioned animals in the previous paragraph, and as readers of the first book will know Clemons has a wild companion in the form of a Wolf and it’s great to see that this creature is still with him.

There is plenty of action and some tense scenes such as when the captive Clemons is taken into a Ute camp. Author Scott Harris isn’t above killing off some of his main characters either and there is one surprising and shocking death for Clemons and his new friends to deal with.

There is also a lot of soul searching for Clemons to do regarding his quest to find his father and his loyalties to those he’s left behind in Dry Springs and Scott Harris writes these mental battles as well as his action passages.

The story comes to a satisfying conclusion, but in doing so new challenges are set, thus leaving the way open for the third book in the series, one I am certainly looking forward to reading.

Coyote Courage

By Scott Harris

December, 2016

Brock Clemons rides into the small town of Dry Springs simply looking for a place to grab a cigar and a good night’s sleep. Instead, he finds a town being strangled by a band of hardened outlaws, a young boy named Huck who is bravely facing challenges far beyond his years, and Sophie, a woman of captivating strength and beauty. Brock decides to stay beyond the one night he had planned, but will his intelligence, courage and unmatched skill with a gun be enough to save the town, help Huck and win Sophie’s heart?

When beginning this book you’d be forgiven for thinking the story is being told in the first person, for it isn’t until fifty-five pages in, and the start of chapter ten, that the author switches to the third person, and from then on alternates between the two.

Scott Harris includes a few mystery elements to hook his readers, such as what is Brock Clemons' backstory and what has really happened to Huck’s father.

Clemons also has an interesting pet, a wolf that has a major role to play when its human companion is wounded and in need of protection.

Well-developed characters, vivid action scenes, visual descriptions and a fast-moving plot, all told in an extremely easy to read style, offer everything a western reader could want from this genre right down to a tense and dramatic final showdown in the streets of Dry Springs.

The cover states that Coyote Courage is a Brock Clemons Western, so I can only assume that there will be more to come, and I for one am looking forward to the next in the series.