GREEN RIVER SAGA

A land dispute between Cheyenne warriors and cattle ranchers sets off a violent conflict in a Wyoming settlement in this Western from O’Shea and Shurgot.

Dakota Territory, 1866. Sheriff James Talbot tries to keep the peace in the frontier boomtown of Green River—home to railroad workers, miners, cowboys, and riffraff of all kinds—but it’s a combustible place. What’s more, Talbot’s unpopular defense of the rights of the local Native Americans has made him a controversial figure in the white community. After a surprise attack on the town’s saloon—which Talbot succeeds in fending off with the help of Johnny Redfeather, a half Irish, half Apache laudanum-addicted gunslinger, plus a half-dozen prostitutes—Talbot is forced to figure out who the culprit is, and who was the target. He suspects the man behind the attack is cattle rancher Brent Tompkin, whose dispute with the Cheyenne over land rights is coming to a boil. One particular group has drawn his ire: a band of Hotamitanio—the fierce Dog Soldiers of the Southern Cheyenne—under the command of Running Bear. For Talbot, Redfeather, and a migrant Confederate veteran named Jeremiah Staggart, the conflict between Tompkin and Running Bear isn’t an if, but a when. They’ll just have to decide whether they’ll be there when it all goes down. O’Shea and Shurgot illuminate their story with wonderful details of life on the frontier: “On a rickety chair beside the doors sat a tall, thin man wearing a greasy, lop-sided top hat, a dirty, white cotton shirt, a red bandana and a string of beads around his neck, leather pants and old boots so worn that Staggart wondered what kept them on the man’s feet.” Other than a few uncomfortable instances of dialect, the characters are well drawn and embellished with significant backstory (perhaps a bit too much backstory, given that the novel has fewer than 200 pages). The plot is a tad predictable, and themes are standard Western fare, but for those looking for a quick read about violence and injustice in the Old West, this is a satisfactory product from the authors of Could You Be Startin’ From Somewhere Else? (2014).

A slim, mostly entertaining novel of tragic bloodshed in the Dakota Territory.