Northwoods Nightmare (The Trailsman #331)

This is a real rip roaring western in every sense of the word.Even at that it has a lot of differences.First,most of the story takes place in British Columbia,Canada,north of the U.S.border in the Fraser Valley around the frontier towns of Yale whose population is now only 219;Boston Bar,now 606;and Spuzzum,now only 25 people.The year being 1861,British Columbia was still a British Colony and Canada still several years from becoming a country. These little places were unknown to me when I spent three summers only about 40 miles away in Chilliwack in the late 1950's. A beautiful country then as now in the mountains with the Fraser River running through it. Fargo has contracted to lead eccentric family of wealthy Havards in search of their missing son Kenneth.The most interesting part of this story is this Family who are as weird and unpredictable as the Berrybenders who Larry McMurtry wrote about in his 4-volume series "The Berrybender Narratives". It is not filled with a lot of gunfights ,great Old West palaver or conversation;but a good amount of suspense and struggle in finding out who is the guilty one and what they are guilty of doing. The story is well written and the reader's interestis maintained from beginning to end.

When Skye Fargo agreed to take the wealthy Havard family on an expedition to British Columbia in search of their son, he got more than he bargained for! If it wasn't hard enough taking a family of city folks into the wilds, he was in for the family feud up close and personal. The Havards are as dysfunctional as a family can get! Add to that an uppity man servant, hostile Indians, rampant criminals, and a whole bunch of people who'd like to buck Skye Fargo out in gore and you've got a NORTHWOODS NIGHTMARE! And then there are the ladies. There is something about Skye Fargo that makes that man irresistible. Skye works to make money to buy the simple pleasures in life; whiskey, women and gambling. After reading this book, money might buy simple pleasures, but it definitely does not equate to happiness! The Havards are a miserable lot!!! I read this entire book in one sitting as I couldn't put it down!! It is fun read with lots of action and a great storyline about greed, hatred and bigotry!