The West is something that Montana author Roland Cheek knows well from years as a wilderness guide and decades of writing newspaper columns and magazine articles.
He's also notched some successes with his nonfiction and six books about the West of today and his earlier tale of the Old West, "Echoes of Vengeance."
Now he builds on Jethro Spring, his character introduced in "Vengeance," for a sequel, "Bloody Merchants' War."
The novels are part of a series that Cheek calls "Valediction for Revenge," They track Spring as he leads the life of a fugitive after slaying an Army major who led a raid on the Musselshell River where Spring's parents were butchered. Along with an entire unsuspecting Indian village.
Spring rides his "gaunt, sweat-streaked mare" out of the Capitan Mountains into southeastern New Mexico in 1877 and into that common theme for old Westerns -- cattle wars.
But Cheek takes the struggle beyond the ususal
CHEEK, ROLAND. Bloody Merchants' War. Skyline Publishing, pap., $16.95. ISBN 0-918981-09-3. In Book Two of the Valediction for Revenge series, Jethro Spring is a fugitive running from the law for killing the U.S. Army major responsible for killing his folks. He has been on the run for sometime, once in the Upper Missouri, then from the Cherokee Strip to Colorado. But now he is in Lincoln County, New Mexico, where poor farmers and ranchers are at the mercy of crooked merchants, the military, and a corrupt territorial government run by something called the Santa Fe Ring. Jethro is caught up in events and must figure out the good guys from the bad guys -- or is there any difference? He has to choose sides. There are no neutral zones to hide in and wait out the violence. But was the side of Billy the Kid the right side? And just where does John Chisum fit in?
A fascinating look at the Lincoln County War from another perspective, with highly charged dialog that will shock you like a live wire, and genuinely living characters. There is nothing two-dimensional about the folks in this book.
by
Published 2002 by Skyline Publishing, Columbia Falls, MT
$16.95 softcover
Jethro Spring, a mixed-blood progeny of a mountain man and his Blackfeet wife, offers up as much adventure as a fan of western storytelling can handle
Bloody Merchants' War is the second book in a series that began with the critically acclaimed
Echoes of Vengeance. Cheek's novel follows Spring -- a fugitive wanted for killing an army officer who murdered his parents -- as he finds himself amidst a bewildering set of circumstances involving corruption, deception and evil.
" . . . Roland Cheek paints his young protagonist's odyssey with a deft hand, portraying the values of courage, prinicple, and friendship on a canvas as broad as America itself." - Stan Lynde, author of Vigilante Moon.
disputes over land, animals and political power, beyond the race and class divisions that leave Spring caught between the Native American blood of his mother and the so-called civilized world of his white father. While all these elements drive action in the novel, what sets the book apart is the struggle for men's souls.
Spring may have killed a man in the past, but, throughout "Bloody Merchants' War," he is the voice of reason, the one appealing to others to not exact vengeance outside the law.
Simple survival is a challenge on the hard-scrabble range -- for both men and animals. The battle for Army and reservation supply contracts and the retail and political control of a town only add to the simmering stew
It takes little for tempers to boil over and gunfire to erupt.
Spring steps into the middle of the fire almost immediately. His skills in thwarting an attack on a home make him sought after by both sides. But he's unwilling to sell
himself as a gunhand to the highest bidder.
Instead, he hires on for far less pay at the ranch of one of the leading mercantilers. He hones his ranch skills, but his past as a prizefighter and his fast gunhand are repeatedly of more value.
Cheek takes the tale beyond the usual running gunfight to look at the corruption rampant in early government in the West and the problems of trying to eliminate the problems in lands far from Washington, D.C.
The fear of standing down local bullies twisting justice to their own ends is evident as higher-up government officials wash their hands of indictments or return court rulings that may recognize a wrong but mete out no punishment.
Cheek fleshes out his characters so that the reader finds both good and evil at war inside many of the individuals. Even Spring
struggles with what actions to take.
The story includes well-known Western icons, such as the Chisum family, famed for their huge cattle operations and long cattle drives, and William Bonney, better known as the future outlaw "Billy the Kid."
And Montana readers will appreciate Cheek's references to their native state when Spring's reminiscing goes beyond the brutal assault in the Indian Wars.
The author has created an appealing lead character who's morally and physically strong in a world where choices often come under a hail of bullets. It's a fresh approach on a well-worn trail and worth following for novel No. 3.
Chris Rubich may be reached at 657-1301 or crubich@billingsgazette.com
