When Thomas Carey was mustered out of the Confederate Army, he stripped off his uniform but he kept his gun. He would need it where he was going, for ten men had sworn to kill him, then men whom he had last seen in a Yankee prison.
He would need it, too, when he returned to claim the Texas spread he had left five long bloody years before, and the wife who loved and hated him. The land-grabbers and rustlers who had moved in while he was gone had had plenty of time to forget what kind of man Carey was. Now they were going to remember, just as fast as it took Carey’s Colt .45 to clear leather . . .
In this, the third Carey book, we learn that after taking time-out from the war Carey had returned to continue the fight. This story begins near the end of the Civil War, with Carey involved in the attack on Fort Stedman, also known as the battle for Hare’s Hill, on March 25th, 1865. It’s just before the Confederates attack that Carey learns of the ten men who want to kill him, one of whom is taking part in the battle alongside him. I found this part of the book to be the most exciting as after Lee surrenders the Confederacy the pace of the story slowed quite a lot.
A promise to a dying Union soldier sees Carey agreeing to deliver news of the man’s death to his sister. On the way Carey decides to visit a woman he’d met in the previous book only to find her dead and discover that he is now a father. Carey takes the baby and the child’s grandfather with him as he heads for home. The fact that the grandfather is black and the baby a half-cast will cause even more problems for Carey, not least whether his wife will want to look after a coloured baby. Then there’s the men wanting his spread that they plan to buy or take with the gun.
Quite a few storylines in this book began in the previous two novels. Even though the author gives brief outlines to what has gone before I think it might be advantageous to read those earlier books before this one.
Irving A. Greenfield’s prose is very readable, and even though his hero Thomas Carey isn’t a particularly likeable protagonist you will want to know what happens to him. The story is quite dark in tone and the violence fairly brutal in its description.
The story meandered a bit too much to me though. Once Carey had left the army it seemed to take a long time for anything to happen. When it did, it was exciting enough to keep me reading. I also thought a couple of story threads had been forgotten, but they did rear their ugly heads towards the end even though they didn’t conclude. This makes me wonder if Greenfield had planned to write more books in this series which just didn’t happen for whatever reason. A shame really, as this makes The Carey Gun a weak ending to the trilogy. Overall, I enjoyed the three Carey books, it’s just somewhat disappointing that too many plotlines were left hanging.
