Solomon Spring
This exciting sequel to An Uncommon Enemy picks up ten years later, in 1878, as Brad Randall takes leave from his position as Commissioner of Indian Affairs to return to Kansas. He has two missions: to help the starving Cheyenne when the federal government ignores their plight, and bring the news to Eden Murdoch, his former lover, that her firstborn son is still alive. He finds her locked in the county jail for civil disobedience, protesting the development of an exclusive spa at the sacred Solomon Spring. How Brad himself ends up on trial for murder, and whether he and Eden have a bright future together, is a complex story best left for the reader to enjoy.
It’s said that historical novels can either depict past events with authenticity or make them accessible to the modern reader. Black’s novels do both. You can sense the dry setting of the Kansas prairie and feel the sorrow of the Cheyenne right along with Brad and Eden, and you can picture, equally well, the plainspoken dialogue rolling off the tongues of these disarmingly honest, three-dimensional characters. This novel can’t really be called a mystery, despite the publisher’s intent–but if you’re as gripped as I was by this combination of romance, suspense, and bona fide western action, you’ll ignore the genre label and keep on happily reading anyway.
