Dark Prairie

May 27, 2013
Five Star launches its Frontier Fiction line with a crime novel set in the Old West from Spur Award–winner Nesbitt (Stranger in Thunder Basin). Sometime in the 1890s, a mysterious stranger named Dunbar rides into the little town of Winsome, Wyo., where he hooks on as a cow hand at the Little Six ranch. Dunbar doesn’t say much about himself, though he asks a lot of questions about the new reservoir being built and the four unelected men who run Winsome without the help of any lawmen: Fenn Fuller, owner of the mercantile store; Lon Buckley, saloon owner; Al Redington, butcher; and Henry Dornick, stone mason. Dunbar’s probing about some missing cattle angers Redington, while his presence bothers Tut Whipple, the director of the reservoir project. Dunbar also looks into the disappearance of 17-year-old Annie Mora. Nesbitt provides fine period detail and lucid prose as Dunbar’s purpose and his target become slowly and convincingly clear. Agent: Cherry Weiner, Cherry Weiner Literary Agency.

May 1, 2013

The small Wyoming town of Winsome might have its problems, but young cowpoke Grey Wharton doesn't know how deeply flawed some of its citizens are until an outsider known only as Dunbar rides into town, joining up with the ranch crew. Water rights are the next big thing out here, and Tut Whipple's workers are busily digging canals and reservoirs. The inevitable tension between the water guys and the cattle guys erupts violently with accusations and shootings. Meanwhile, Dunbar snoops around enough that folks think he might be a Pinkerton man, but he never discloses just what he's investigating. Turns out a missing young woman's fate might matter more than the townies care to admit. VERDICT Western master and SPUR Award-winner Nesbitt (Death at Dark Water) has crafted a memorable coming-of-age mystery set in the wide-open spaces of 1890s Wyoming. Slim, tightly written, and quietly suspenseful, the novel opens a captivating window into the frontier justice system.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2013
Callow young Grey Wharton works at the sleepy Little Six ranch, from which he manages to run errands to sleepy little Winsome, Wyoming. In town, Grey invents excuses to see Ruth Whipple, the pretty wife of an engineer, Tut Whipple, who's developing a controversial new dam that will split up a lot of range land. Grey's too shy and proper for an overt romance, so Ruth and he haven't much to talk about except the disappearance of a young Mexican girl, Annie Mora. Tut doesn't seem to care about Grey's visits, nor, at first, does he raise a fuss when an older man named Dunbar hires on at the Little Six and calls on Ruth, too. Little Six cattle begin disappearing. Something doesn't add up about Tut Whipple. The mystery deepens when Dunbar, enlisting Gary as his assistant, shadows Whipple's big project, ostensibly to investigate the rustling. Tempers flare with Whipple's crew, a Little Six hand is shotand then a terrible truth emerges. A solid, compact western from the always-reliable Nesbitt.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)