Robert D. Larranaga

Civil war history ... all packaged up in a delightfully readable novel

If you are looking for a romance or a pretty story, this book will please you well enough. The storytelling is realistic and all of the characters come to life, especially the protagonist Ed Canfield. But if you are looking for a realistic, gritty tale about what it's like to be a veteran returning from one war, only to watch his country fracture in a second, even -more- stupid war. This book brought the post-civil-war period to life in a way no other book I have ever read has.

Unlike the usual quasi-romantic civil war fare told through the eyes of an aristocrat or farmer-boy called to action, this story is told in a voice typical of the gritty protagonist of the old western tales, Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour ... only this tale has a strong, female protagonists (though Zane Grey had a few as well). I could picture John Wayne, Gary Kooper, or James Arness playing the part of Ed Canfield.

I think perhaps it is best if I let the protagonist Ed Canfield give you the geist of this story in his own words:

"After warring, most soldiers lay down their weapons, hang up their uniforms and go on about their lives as civilians. Not me. After I came home from the Mexican-American War, I burned my uniform. But nothing rid me of the nightmares that stuck with me like a burr on the hind end of a mangy dog. Night after night I fought an endless series of bloody skirmishes with demons that had no need of sleep. Always on edge and ready for a fight, I drifted from one dead-end job to the next like a man on the dodge. I didn't fit in."

This story brings that time period to life for a NEW generation who didn't have the benefit of old western movies to get an idea what the history was that created the gritty ex-veterans who then moved west to conquer a new frontier.… (meer)