February, 2005
CHEEK, ROLAND. Gunnar's Mine: Valediction for Revenge, Book Four. Skyline Publishing Co., pap., $16.95. ISBN 0-918981-11-5.
Jethro Spring, half white, half Blackfeet, and all steadfast man, leaves behind the bloodshed and feuds of Lincoln County, New Mexico and drifts into Colorado, now in the midst of another mining boom, this time for gold. Jethro goes to work for a Swedish immigrant, Gunnar Einarssen, who has a mining claim he refuses to sell to Amalgamated Minerals and Mining, whose toughs are gradually buying the independents by threatening violence. Jethro is determined that the mining behemoth will not force out Gunnar. After the Lincoln County War Jethro has experience dealing with a greedy corporation, but first one independent miner is killed, and then another is blown up in his own cabin. Gunnar is next, but Jethro doesn't intend to lose his friend to violence.
This is another page turner from Cheek with characters that possess all three dimensions and are tough to kill. Any reader who likes action, adventure, and a plot with more twists than a sidewinder will love Gunnar's Mine.
