Coldwater Range

Written by John D. Nesbitt
Review by Brodie Curtis

Del is a hard-working cow-puncher on the Wyoming range around the turn of the 20^th century. He loves drawing the latigo and tightening the cinch on his trusted mount and joining the rest of the cowboys on their duns, sorrels and bays to manage the herd. But Del is shaken from his simple existence when his employer-rancher goads a “nester” homesteader into a confrontation he can’t win. Conversations with locals strike a spark in Del to look into heavy-handed landowner tactics that unjustly force hard-working folks off their land. He quits his job and tiptoes into a slow-burn romance with the daughter of a homesteader that gives him a reason to stay. Plenty of period detail and dialogue are paced like a lonely cowboy’s deliberate drawl to the final, gritty showdown. The author is a prolific writer of western novels with a clear love for the landscapes and hard-working, principled protagonists.