Go and Bury Your Dead
Brooks continues the John Henry Cole series with this violent entry. It starts with the murder of a Pinkerton detective, sent to rescue the young wife of an ailing older rancher from outlaw Lucky Jack. With the Pinkerton man gone, Wilson, the rancher, turns to Cole, former lawman, now living a quieter life with Woman, an Indian, on his small patch of land. Wilson’s offer is too good to refuse, however, so Cole leaves Woman and heads out with Wilson and his sons, brutal Bo and quiet Jesse.
Narrative rather than description is Brooks’ specialty (Lenora, the missing wife, has eyes that are both “smoky and smoldering” at the same time). The plot moves at a brisk pace with stock, yet memorable characters. In Gun Town, where Cole has tracked Lenora and Lucky Jack, the one-eyed cook at the local diner recognizes Cole as the lawman in Montana who arrested him and also bought him a train ticket to get out of town. Bo is irredeemably evil, though, even more than Lucky Jack, and Cole faces the consequences of choosing his job over Woman (seriously, that’s the character’s name). I think fans of Westerns are there for the story rather than character development and in this story, Brooks does not disappoint.