As the three Darby brothers hang from the gallows, the townspeople of Kosoma are relieved. Nothing and no one had been safe while those three were breathing. Now that the execution has taken place, U.S. Marshall Trusty Dawson's job is to take Judge Hadesworth back home. Just before the two men head out, the dead outlaws' sister, Amelia, persuades the judge to take her along with them. With her brothers' reputations there in town, there's no way she's going to get a fair shake from anyone. Trusty really wanted to leave her behind, sensing that she's trouble, but the judge overrules him.
And trouble is exactly what she turns out to be. Bedding down for the night at Lost Mountain Pass, the three are ambushed. The judge is killed, Trusty wounded, and Amelia vanishes, leading Trusty to believe that she led them straight into a trap.
To find Amelia, Trusty is going to have to put his faith in the fourth Darby brother, Michael, a man who's recently left the priesthood, but as their search for Michael's sister turns deadlier by the day, Trusty has good reason to distrust Michael as well.
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I'm finding that I'm in the midst of another mini-reading binge of books set in the American West, and one of the best authors to read is Spur Award-winning Larry D. Sweazy. This first Trusty Dawson book, Lost Mountain Pass, takes us from 1860s St. Louis and Trusty's youth to 1880s Indian Territory where U.S. Marshall Sam Dawson has earned the nickname everyone calls him by being utterly trustworthy and dependable.
Sweazy's setting has you slapping off the trail dust, hearing the jingle of spurs, and knowing that your life may very well depend on how observant you are of people and your surroundings. There's more going on than a simple manhunt to put Trusty's life in danger, and as his backstory is woven into the story, the danger he's in becomes palpable. There are two very dangerous men after Dawson, and the shadowy Michael Darby with his reluctance to talk makes you wonder if there's a third. And as far as characters are concerned, Sweazy introduces a female Apache scout named Woman's Clothes that I definitely would love to see more of.
With its fast pace, authentic setting, very real sense of danger, and amusing turns of phrase ("...took to wearing suits like a lizard dancing on ice" and "...face that looked like it had been used to rake gravel"), Lost Mountain Pass is an extremely satisfying read. In the next book in the series, Trusty will be heading to North Dakota, and I think I'll just mosey right along with him.
Lost Mountain Pass by Larry D. Sweazy
eISBN: 9780786046782
Pinnacle Books © 2021
eBook, 320 pages
Historical Fiction/Western, #1 Trusty Dawson
Rating: B+
Source: Net Galley
