Blood Oath
This story, book 2 in the Sawbones series, starts with a killer first sentence (which aspiring authors will envy) to grip the reader from the get-go. The first chapter’s gory conclusion gives the reader a taste of what’s to come: Lenhardt makes it clear from the outset that this is not the usual prairie romance.
The woman doctor now going by the name Laura Elliston is fleeing along with AWOL army officer William Kindle. In the first book, Sawbones, on her journey west, Laura was captured and raped by Native Americans. Kindle’s unit rescued her and they fell in love. Now, he’s avoiding the army, and Laura is wanted for murder back east. They fall in with the Bell Gang and Laura intervenes in the gang’s rape of a captured Native American woman, Aenoheke. The three travel together until Aeneoheke discovers that Kindle murdered her son at the Washita massacre, and wreaks a terrible vengeance on him. Laura receives word from relatives in Scotland that she can claim an inheritance if she will visit. She and Kindle set off for New Orleans to take ship for Europe, but they don’t get far; on the riverboat, Kindle runs into some old acquaintances and is recognized.
From the outset, I liked the story a lot, despite lacking information from not having read the first volume. Laura and Kindle’s relationship is made especially interesting by their run from the law, their engaging, humorous banter, and Laura’s proto-feminism, within the limits of 19th-century mores. As the tale went on, though, I thought Laura spent too much time ill or unconscious, and I wished it didn’t end with a cliffhanger. The couple’s relationship redeems the small flaws, so I heartily recommend this romance/Western to readers who don’t mind dollops of gore and violence.
