1857's horrific Mountain Meadows Massacre - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountai... - was mentioned in some detail in Mark Twain's Roughing It, and reading that made me want to learn more on the subject. I remember reading about the incident for the first time in Edgerton's book and decided to open this one again. Turns out, this is not really about the day when Brigham Young ordered an attack on a wagon train, but instead about the fictitious Eagle City Shootout of 1892. Most of the novel is concerned with introducing the players in the later event, among them a school-marmish single gal, a British archeologist, a man hilariously attempting to perfect mortuary science and an old bounty hunter who uses his dog, Redeye, as a weapon. While still a worthwhile read, this was not nearly as good as I'd remembered, so, YOINK, there goes a star.One plus - in yet another example of how one book leads to another, the addenda has made me add Jack London's 1915 novel The Star Rover to my to-read list.It never ends . . . and that makes me so, so happy.
This is the first of Clyde Edgerton's novels that I have read. I must admit...I really enjoyed it. It is presented to readers as a pamphlet explaining a trip that the reader is embarking on.He introduces a cast of characters through some of their own journal entries. These characters all took, at a point in the novel, the same trip the reader is about to take.On their trip, a first embarking on it, there is a tragedy that is hinted at; a shoot-out. The novel leads to this moment, and doesn't fail to entertain along the way.Edgerton's cast is varied, and well-realized. As a western novel, most of them are quite colorful! The place they live, a western front in Colorado, is just as colorful!I greatly enjoyed this funny western jaunt, and will see what else Edgerton has written.
