The Gallowsman

Ben Woodard the main character has lost his wife and family, has survived the civil war as a spy, testifies in a murder trial and sees the defendant hanged. Ben drowns himself in a bottle and then tries to leave his past by moving to Colorado, stakes out a claim and tries not to think opf the past. But people tell him that they have seen the man he saw hanged. A very good story.

"The Gallowsman" is the second Western novel by Will Cade. After losing his wife and children to disease, Ben Woolard becomes a heavy drinker. After a long time he decides that he needs to get on with his life, and travels to Ferguson, Colorado to see if his brother, Jake, a prominent merchant, can help him find work there. Ferguson is a booming silver mining town. Ben becomes overseer at his brother's sleeping house, the Catherdral. He begins to see men that rode with a bushwhacker named Henry Champion whom Ben helped send to the gallows after testifying against him. He even hears someone say that Champion himself is alive, even though Ben saw him hanged many years earlier. There is adventure, mystery, and a lot of suspense in this book. Will Cade is an excellent Western writer, and I look forward to reading more of his books. "The Gallowsman" is highly recommended.

If a book doesn't grab me with the first few pages, well, I just end up skimming through it. This book gets ya hooked right from the first page. A little complex at times because there is so much going on, but an excellent read all the way around. I personally like cover to cover action and that is what you get in this story of a past come back to haunt the main character,Ben Woolard. You can feel Ben's pain, and his fear and you know the character so well you sense his temptation to go back to his old life as well. I throughly enjoyed this book and hope he writes many more in the future. ~bev bozman~