In the blistering heart of the Arizona desert, seventeen Apache maidens have mysteriously disappeared. It is the sinister handiwork of a group of U.S. Army enlisted men led by the notorious Captain Honorius Crawford. As tribal unrest reaches the violent breaking point, Powell’s Army is dispatched on a desperate mission to infiltrate and destroy the fiendish slave ring. A mission that could lead the three troubleshooters into the lethal clutches of vicious Mexican flesh merchants and into a nightmare world south of the border from which death in the only escape.
Like the first book in the series, this story concentrates on one of the three people who make up Powell’s Army. In the first book it was Celia Burnett, this time it is Gerald Glidinghawk. It is through this full blood Omaha that most of the story is told and his character is fleshed out as we find out more about his personality and backstory. Celia, and the third member of the group, Landrum Davis, do have parts to play, but they are mainly kept in the background.
The story opens in the middle of a deadly situation, but the author soon explains how they came to be surrounded by Apache’s through Glidinghawk’s memories of getting instructions about their mission from Amos Powell. None of Powell’s Army escape unscathed from this confrontation and they find themselves struggling to stay alive in the desert without water. Glidinghawk, who has the worst wounds, is soon left alone whilst the others attempt to find water. It is now that the main emphasis of the story switches to Glidinghawk.
It was during these first two parts of the story that my acceptance of reality was stretched somewhat. Two incidents that I found hard to believe, yet still made for entertaining moments. The first involves freeing Celia from the Apache’s by using fish, and Glidinghawk’s saviour – a camel. Quite why a solitary camel was wandering around by itself in Arizona was never really explained, but it did add a different element to this story.
For me, the opening sequences did seem to drag on a bit, they lasted for nearly half the book, but once Powell’s Army closes in on the Mexican’s camp the pace, and action, picked up a lot and I was glad I stuck with it. Celia and Landrum are captured and Glidinghawk really has the odds stacked against him as he attempts to free them. This doesn’t work out quite as intended and Powell’s Army find themselves in a deadly situation that seems near impossible to escape from. They also have some very tough decisions to make that not all of them accept as easily as others. These tense scenes more than made up for the slower pace of the first part of the book.
Apache Raiders wasn’t as gripping as the first novel in the series but I was glad I stuck with it as it got better and better and proved to be a fairly entertaining story. Of course, finding out more about Glidinghawk’s character will only enhance my enjoyment of the next books and I do plan on reading the third entry very soon.
Terence Duncan is a pseudonym shared by a number of different authors and, like the first book, this one was written by Barbara Puechner.
