Dakota Lawman: Last Stand at Sweet Sorrow

This the first in a series about Jake Horn, a healer, now falsely accused of murder. Sweet Sorrow is filled with misfits, drunks, gamblers and dreamers. The perfect town for Jake to get lost in. But a strange plague of madness, brutality and murder runs rampant - and a slippery Texan named Roy Bean is pressuring Jake to become the town Marshal. Unknown to Jake a famous bounty hunter is tracking him down to collect the substantial reward for bringing Jake Horn in stone cold dead! Bill Brooks writes a good book filled with interesting people, many who have a troubled past. Occasionally I thought the need to tell us about his characters past bordered on the long side, seemed a bit like padding, particularly when the same ground was covered from two different peoples backgrounds. One thing that came over well was a sense of sadness for all the characters; they all seemed to be those dreamers mentioned earlier. The violence is brutal and shocking at times. The madness driving people to the edge, and beyond, of insanity. The question of what was causing these violent acts hooked me from the beginning, kept me reading to find out the answer. At one point it seemed as if there could not possibly be anyone living by the time I'd get to the end. My first book by this author and it wont be my last.

I count "Last Stand at Sweet Sorrow" as the first genuine genre-type western I've read, and I liked it enough that I'm now reading the second installment of the series. I had read Brooks' Billy-the-Kid novel, "The Stone Garden" and was fairly impressed with it, but I consider that one more of a literary work. This one comes out with quite a grabber of an openning, and it really gets the book moving. The writing is pretty consistent, and not over-done; a few cliches, maybe. A little more stage direction would have helped, also (is the guy inside or outside? Standing or sitting? etc.), but Brooks can deliver some fine passages, and the writing is enjoyable throughout. The story is also fairly involving, if maybe one thread, and two or three characters too many make the book a tad ungainly, but still well worth reading. (Don't know yet if this is typical of contemporary westerns). Despite these quibbles, a very good read, I'd say.