BOOK REVIEWS BOB BRILL from Judge Isaac C. Parker, Stowell and FICTION Lancer: Hero of the West: The Santa Fe his posse leave Fort Sill to go after white Affair criminals in the Indian Territory. The AMY HALE AUKER Brill Productions/CreateSpace danger and adventures they encounter Ordinary Skin: Essays from Willow Trade paperback, 182 pages, $11.99 searching for wanted men is informative BobBrillBooks.com Springs about lawmen of the West. The book Texas Tech University Press In this installment of the Lancer se- keeps you wondering what’s the next ob- Hardcover, 182 pages, $24.95 ries, the hero is hired to find and rescue stacle they will find. This is fun to read TTUPress.org Burnie Kane and Burnie’s little half- and educational on how criminals were Amy Hale Auker has a way with Chinese son Robert. The assignment apprehended in the 1880s. words. She brings the skills with sound takes Lancer to the KKK-controlled – Lowell F. Volk and imagery and insight learned as a town of El Macho, New Mexico Terri- B.J. DANIELS poet to her prose, making the act of tory, where he faces off against the bru- Cowboy’s Legacy reading enjoyable in and of itself. These tal Romo brothers, who simply execute Harlequin essays capture the author’s musings anyone they don’t like. Things really Mass-market paperback, 384 pages, about hiking, camping, birds and their start popping for Lancer when Robert’s $7.99 nests, intermittent pond creatures, grandfather, a Chinese warlord, arrives HQNBooks.com plants, animals and whatever else with a small private army to fetch his Romance novels are not always about captures her fancy. Most entries, to my grandson. overpowering leading men, women with satisfaction, deal with going horseback JIRI CERNIK heaving bosoms and a lot of shedding after cattle on the Arizona ranch she The Shots at Iron Mountain: A Story of of clothing. For example, consider New calls home. Many of the essays come to Two Men – Tom Horn and Geronimo York Times best-selling author B.J. Dan- no certain conclusion – as if the author Dorrance Publishing Company iels’s Cowboy’s Legacy. The main charac- drifted away, lost in thought, allowing Trade paperback, 199 pages, $16 ters are drawn to one another after one the reader to do the same. DorrancePublishing.com of them is almost killed. True devotion – Rod Miller Jiri Cernik uses broad brush strokes is tested in a time of crisis with everyone SUE BOGGIO and MARE PEARL to depict Tom Horn, his work among remaining fully dressed. Cowboy’s Legacy Long Night Moon the Apaches and Geronimo and the is the continuing saga of the Cahill University of New Mexico Press events in Wyoming involving the death family. In the third installment, we find Trade paperback, 312 pages, $24.95 of a 14-year-old sheepherder’s son, Wil- that Sheriff Flint Cahill’s love, Maggie UNMPress.com lie Nickell. This is fiction, and the au- Thompson, has been abducted just as Unexpected fatherhood thrusts thor has relied heavily on the historical they were planning to start their lives Santiago “Santi” Silva through a door record, while adding his own interpreta- together. The main suspect is Cahill’s ex- he didn’t know existed until that fateful tions. While Horn was involved with wife, who continues to carry a torch for moment when Rosalinda, the mother of Geronimo, and this book has periodic him but won’t cooperate with authori- a 3-year-old boy, shows up at his family’s interludes related to that story line, it ties. With time running out, Maggie and New Mexico ranch. Santi’s life quickly would have been stronger to separate Flint have to rely on each other in order resembles a tornado’s aftermath after he the Arizona events from the Wyoming to make it out alive. Fans of Daniels’s is called back from a blossoming career events. They have no direct connection work will not be disappointed in this in San Francisco. Having discovered the and the bounce back and forth slowed imaginative and thrilling love story. identity of the child’s grandma, Rosa- the narrative. SCOTT HARRIS linda’s current boyfriend brews a plot to JAMES D. CROWNOVER Coyote Courage extort money from said grandma. Twists The Ox That Gored Scott Harris and turns worthy of any country high- Five Star Publishing Trade paperback, 130 pages, $10 way mountain pass abound. The plot Hardcover, 331 pages, $25.95 Harris52.com speeds along at a good pace. Detracting Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar This Brock Clemons Western starts to the speed are the multiple “players” James Crownover takes you on out a little slow but once it gets past the who have confusing back histories and adventures into the Indian Terri- background information, it picks up the addition of plot items thrown in that tory through the eyes of Deputy U.S. and becomes interesting. Clemons, a seem to have been added for appear- Marshal Lee Stowell and his posse in stranger, rides into Dry Springs needing ance's sake. Sometimes, less is better. the late 1800s. With warrants in hand money to buy supplies so he can con- – Sandy Whiting DECEMBER 2017 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 19 19 tinue his quest to find his father. After once and for all. Bob Herzberg writes a JAMES D. CROWNOVER getting a lead from Huck, a 12-year-old lot of books on film history, mysteries Tales of the Last Frontier boy who runs the livery, Clemons finds and some Westerns. This one meanders Five Star Publishing work with Ray Hinton at the mercantile. once in a while but moves fast. Hardcover, 314 pages, $25.95 When outlaws try to take merchandise – Edward Massey Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar without paying he steps in and stops Chock full of colorful stories of D. LÁSZLÓ CONHAIM th them, starting an adventure to rid the Comanche Captive Tularosa Basin 19 Century life, Tales town of the outlaws. The book is an of the Last Frontier gives fascinating Five Star Publishing easy read once the story gets going and Hardcover, 224 pages, $25.95 insights into everyday people doing will keep you interested in what hap- Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar everyday jobs. Award-winning James D. pens next. When does a captive stop being a cap- Crownover aimed to give voice to people – Lowell F. Volk tive? In this tale of a white woman ver- whose lives are generally overlooked. To that, he has done an outstanding job in BOB HERZBERG sus the Indians versus the U.S. military, The Outlaws Hennessey either all will lose or all will win. At the this last of the Five Trails West series. At times hard to decipher due to his overuse Solstice Publishing heart of this story is a mother’s love for Paperback, 260 pages, $3.99 her child, who is part Comanche. After of dialect, the general idea is clear. His SolsticePublishing.com. her “rescue,” she strives to return to him characters are drawn clearly and cleverly Jed Tully and Ty Brody plan to rob regardless of the cost. In a Gordian knot with tidbits of forgotten facts tossed in. a greedy merchant’s store. Wait! They of various Indian tribes, Army units Cattle drives, avenging Indians, a curious find the place already robbed and that and forts, the woman, Laura Little, and yet hilarious Mexican cattle breed, a de- greedy so-and-so murdered. That Hen- Captain Scott Renald, fight each other sert rescue and a story of slavery fill the nessey gang did it. You guessed it, Jed and then alongside each other to keep pages with yarns that not only educate and Ty are blamed for the robbery, him from being court-martialed and for but entertain. Crownover’s writing is wanted for murder and forced to ride her to find and keep her son. At times strong with carefully crafted story lines. with those Hennesseys to save their it is devilishly hard to keep the players – Melody Groves hides. You’ll have to read it to see if straight. they are able to put an end to the gang – Melody Groves 20 20 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2017 ESTERN MUSIC W. M I C H A E L F A R M E R W Blood of the Devil, The Life and Times of Yellow Boy, Mescalero Apache Book Two Five Star Publishing Hardcover, 372 pages, $25.95 JIM WILSON Gale.Cengage.com/FiveStar White Rose It took courage to publish this densely packed, scholarly, Buscadero Productions, $17 SheriffJimWilson.com 140,000-ish word work of fiction. The reader gets his money’s worth in Apache culture, language, characters and stories trac- Jim Wilson’s 12-cut collection of ing the life and times of Yellow Boy. The narrative vehicle is covers by the likes of Guy Clark, Chuck the autobiography of an Apache boy from 1860 to 1951. He Pyle, Merle Haggard, Hank Cochran and befriends, fights and loves friends, foes and women, including Hayes Carll takes me witches, shape-shifters and multiple wives. It takes a bit of con- happily back to the Deep South honky-tonk centration to keep everyone and everything straight. Thirteen music of my youth. I grew up in Natchez, pages of reference material covering Apache and Spanish Mississippi, a river town 90 miles north of language, as well as characters and geography, help us. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I’ve still got family – Edward Massey in Mississippi, Louisiana and in Houston, places close to my heart, places slapped FRANK LESLIE OLLIE around this past summer by Hurricane Revenger REED JR.