Broken Trail
by Alan Geoffrion
Published by Fulcrum Publishing
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Reviewed by Connie Anderson
You know a book is good when you promise yourself you'll only read for a chapter...and hour...a morning! That's Broken Trail!
Westerns are not my usual reading fare--and this western is already a June 2006 mini-series on AMC channel. It is unusual in that the actors are pictured on the cover, so when you read, you see Robert Duvall as Print Ritter, the bowed and bandy-legged old cowboy, and Thomas Hayden Church as his nephew, Tom.
Fulcrum Publishing launched Geoffrion's book as its first adult fiction. And WOW, he really brings this late 1800-early 1900 history lesson to life.
Ritter and Tom are driving a herd of 500 horses from Oregon to Wyoming--and along the way encounter bad guys of every ilk. One despicable character had bought five Chinese girls who had been shanghaied to America for prostitution. He was not nice at all!
Guns were used to protect, steal and kill--often those bad guys "needed killing." Friendships and respect were shown without words (Chinese not spoken here), and loneliness and isolation are woven throughout the entire story.
The humanity given to those two main characters crosses from rescuing complete and sometimes pathetic strangers--to killing when necessary with no second thought in order to protect good people. Print Ritter decides in a split second to rescue needy men and women--and bring them into their camp and life.
Armchair Interviews says: Walk in the boots of old-West cowboys and the men and women whose paths they cross. You'll be very glad you did.