Memphis Reads Archive

Fiction/Westerns

Sara Ellen Reid reviews THE MAN FROM SHADOW RIDGE by Brock & Bodie Thoene (Bethany House, 1990)

It was 1861 and Tom Dawson, a rugged individualist and man of high moral character, had become increasingly uncomfortable in his Missouri army regiment, the Marion Rangers. Pro-slavery sentiment had asserted itself and the Rangers had joined the Confederacy. Tom had been grateful when brother Jesse's letter arrived asking him to join Jesse's family in California where they had a homestead. Jesse could not afford a hired hand and Tom's help would be extremely valuable in running the small ranch which ran below the eastern slope of Shadow Ridge Mountain.

The past two years had been good ones; Tom had found a measure of contentment far from the chaos of the Civil War back East. But now word has come that a stagecoach in the area has been robbed and six people have been brutally murdered. Southern sympathizers who were stealing Union gold for the South have been blamed. The peace-loving brothers get embroiled in the war's turmoil that has now extended far to the West. A series of harsh events make the townspeople fearful and the Dawson family is particularly tried through a tragic death and a kidnapping. In the end, Tom draws on his faith and finds the courage to go against a wealthy, influential, but duplicitous town merchant and his gang of thugs.

This is the first in a series called "Saga of the Sierras." The Thoenes are an award-winning writing team whose books are especially notable for their detailed research. The fact that the authors make their home in the Sierra Nevada Mountains adds to the realism with which the book was written.


Sara Ellen Reid, Parkway Village Branch Library

Labels: Reviews by Sara Ellen Reid, Westerns