Coyote Wind

Sometimes a book delivers to the reader a glimpse into a different world. Such is the case with Peter Bowen's Coyote Wind. Bowen brings to life a small community of Metis in Montana. The Metis people are a mix of French and native Indian cultures. There are many Metis in Canada and several communities in the United States.

Bowen's lead character is Gabriel Du Pre, a cattle brand inspector, who gets involved in a few investigations because he's the only "law" man available. He also is an excellent tracker and that comes in handy when he is assigned to look into a very old crash site. The mystery is not who was in the plane that went down so long ago, but how the extra skull and finger bones ended up there. And whose bones are they? And how did they end up in the crash site?

In this concise but twisting mystery novel, we discover the widower Gabriel's world of his lover and his two independent children, and his joy of being a fiddler man. It is a rough life but the only one that Gabriel knows, since his family has been in this community since before he was born.

While this book is written in a vernacular which may be hard to read for some, I found it fascinating. And Bowen manages to use this language to show Du Pre's humor. Du Pre is constantly referring to himself as just the "cow ass man", when he grumbles about doing more investigative work or when he is getting yelled at by his superior law officers.

A fun read and a great insight into a different subculture. Can't wait to read the next one.

Holmes on the Range

Meet the Amlingmeyers. A pair of brothers riding the range from one grub stake to the next. Are they just obsessed cowpokes thinking about food, smokes, horses, women and more food? Nope. Old Red (Gustav) and Big Red (Otto) have other things on their mind. Like detecting. Just like that Sherlock fellow. Welcome to the world of Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith.

Old Red's obsession with all things Holmes - read to him by his brother from Harper's Magazine - leads them to adventure. The slightly shady outfit they have signed up with - the Bar VR - ends up having two deaths on the premises. And the foreman really does not seem to care since everyone is supposed to be preparing for the arrival of the foreign owners of the ranch. Just who is lying to whom? And just what is going on with the ranch finances and stock? And those fancy English folks might have a hand in this mess too.

Hockensmith's characters are great fun. The story is told in Big Red's voice and he is a perfect doubting Thomas about his brother's detection skills. But he will stand by him as a loyal "Watson" and family member should. Old Red sometimes doubts himself - he is just an average uneducated cowboy - but he has studied his hero Holmes' methods.

With wonderful characters and a twisty plot, this series is off to a great start. I'm eager to read the rest. A very fun read!

Cactus Flower

Alice Duncan's Cactus Flower is a great example of a "fish out of water" western. Eulalie Gibb has come from the big city stages to this small western town to try and make a home for her and her sister. She already has a job at the Opera House as a singer - and only a singer. But her costumes are enough to set the gentlemen of the town on fire. Nick Taggart has a run in with her, and decides she's too prickly and a bit mean. But he finds himself helping her out anyway. She finds the blacksmith a bit of giant but thinks he might make a good bodyguard. She learns to like the dust ridden town and he learns that toughness can hide a lot. But what is she and her sister running from anyway?

Give it a try. Duncan writes great characters with great humor. A fun read.

The Texan's Reward

Having grown up watching western movies on TV, sometimes I get a taste for a little western romance. Some authors dabble in it, but Jodi Thomas is a master. But you do have to like Texas, since Thomas sets almost all of her books there. But you know Texas is a very big state full of stories so that should not be too hard.

The Texan's Reward is the final book in a series, but like most books from Thomas, if you pick it up without knowing that, it's okay - it will just make you go back and read more. The story starts out with Texas ranger Jacob Dalton coming back to the ranch of his "friend". His friend happens to be an orphan girl, he befriended long ago, who has grown up to be quite a lady (she wasn't when she started). Nell needs a husband - she is bound to a wheelchair and while she can get along in the house she needs a partner for the ranch work. Dalton is mad she's advertising for a husband, and thinks since he has had to bail her out of trouble so many times in the past, he's up for the current job. However ranger duties, other suitors and other trouble soon intervene.

Thomas has a great way with characters - even the secondary ones, and makes the reader feel like they are old friends. So go a "little Western" why don't ya? A fun read.

The Searching Hearts

Dorothy Garlock is one of those rare romance writers who tells it like it is. Her female characters swear, sweat, and go to the bathroom. Yeah, in romances that is the exeception. In her book, The Searching Hearts, her gals do all three.

Garlock is known for her western romances and in this one she combines the desire to find a place to belong, with the struggle of a wagon train. This wagon train is special - it is made up mostly of women. Future brides to be precise. (Just before you pooh- pooh the idea that this never could have happened - there is a historical basis for this. Except the gals left in a boat to go around South America to get to California!)

And this is their story of the struggle to get to the "promised land" and a better future for themselves. Strong women characters, and excellent secondary characters. A great read.

The Man from Stone Creek

Linda Lael Miller's The Man from Stone Creek is a western based romance. At first it seems as if it is a "typical" western romance - the strange guy rides into town to help out with the bad guys, meets a gal and gets the bad guys and the gal. Well - some of that does happen, but what Miller does so well is give her characters life.

Sam O' Ballivan seems a bit too brawny to be the new schoolmaster. But in him, Miller creates a wonderful character that you would like to meet. He has a bad habit of picking up and caring for strays - dogs, horses, and people. And he is a Ranger who is looking for bad guys - but he needs to see the lay of the land to know who and where the bad guys are. Meanwhile he is teaching, and getting a little too interested in Maddie the local postmistress and store clerk. Maddie has had her share of ups and downs in life with her younger brother and she is just trying to keep a roof over their head.

As these two interact and get to know each other and their pasts, the reader comes to appreciate both characters. Miller has a great way of giving characters great backgrounds and she succeeds again in this book.

Although it seemed that the whole world was coming apart in the book's climax - it's just one thing after another - you forgive Miller because you want these two to be together - what ever it takes. A fun read.