“A Sudden Country,” by Karen Fisher (Random House, 366 pages, $24.95)
Stories of the dreams held and the lives lost on the 2,000-mile journey along the Oregon Trail are an intrinsic piece of our nation’s heritage. The latest is Karen Fisher’s debut novel, “A Sudden Country.”
Based on an actual account kept by 11-year-old Emma Ruth, an ancestor of the author, and the oral history handed down in the family, the novel weaves in and out of the lives of the Mitchell family from Iowa and John McLaren, a Scottish trapper for the Hudson Bay Co.
Israel Mitchell is Lucy’s second husband. Never wanting to leave Iowa, she resents his decision to take her and her three children and their newborn to Oregon. He comes equipped with maps but almost no understanding of what the trip will involve. But it is his insistence of using his thoroughbred horses instead of oxen to pull their wagon that causes the most trouble. They fall behind. Their supplies dwindle. The family is on the edge of starvation when John McClaren arrives at the camp.
His children dead from small pox, his only reason for living now is to hunt down the trapper who stole his Nez Perce wife, and he has tracked him to the wagon train. Like Lucy Mitchell, he is at the point of complete despair. And the story makes a decisive turn when he consents to guide the Mitchells to the Columbia River.
The author’s depiction of the harsh realities of everyday life are simply and poignantly told. But Fisher’s insightful handling of the complex relationship between Lucy Mitchell and John McClaren defines the book and sets it apart.
“Twin Rocks: A Western Duo,” by Wayne Overholser (Five Star, 207 pages, $25.95)
“Twin Rocks” is classic Overholser. Like Louis L’Amour, Overholser always set his stories in the 19th-
century American West, using life on the ranches, mining towns and the wilderness as the foundation for stories fans could not resist.
Overholser began writing western stories for pulp magazines when he was still teaching school in the midst of the Depression. By the 1950s and 1960s, he was turning out four novels a year. Three of his novels were awarded the Spur Award for outstanding fiction. “Twin Rocks” marks the ninth previously unpublished novel to be released since his death in the 1990s.
“Trouble at Gold Plume,” the first of the two stories in this edition, introduces Jim Harrigan, a former lawman out for vengeance. He has been hunting Rush Kane, the man he believes killed his sister, for months and finally has tracked him to the new mining town of Gold Plume.
Duke Madden, owner of the Domino Saloon, is said to run the town. He is also the man Harrigan suspects may be protecting Kane. But in his search, Harrigan is stunned when he realizes the extent of Madden’s hold on the town. The few who have tried to stand up to him have failed, some paying with their lives. Harrigan reminds himself he no longer wears a badge, but his sense of justice is too strong.
The second story, “Twin Rocks,” concerns Morgan Dill, an heir to the Rafter D. Ranch. Once little more than a willful young cowhand, he is returning to claim his inheritance on his 25th birthday. But his sister and her husband who have run the ranch in his absence have no intention of allowing him any part of it.
The ranch dominates every aspect of the Basin. Its ranch hands are loyal to Morgan’s sister and her husband. In one way or another, the banker and every store owner in town owe them their allegiance. All but the sheriff, Ed Smith. A family man, he usually retreats to his office until trouble passes. But when Morgan is accused of robbing the bank, Ed suspects the young man is being framed.
In both stories, Overholser provides the quick draws and the violence to satisfy devoted western fans. But it is his flawed heroes of these tightly woven plots and the unexpected twists and turns that lift the stories beyond the stereotype.
Sybil Downing is a Boulder novelist who writes a monthly column on new regional fiction.
