Unforsaken by John Dwaine McKenna

 

Texas Ranger Boyd Pirtle has been chasing an outlaw for several years.  The man goes by Frank Reynolds but he has many names.  Reynolds has terrorized the West for years, robbing, raping and murdering wherever he goes along with his Mexican partner and their gang.  But Pirtle has lost the trail and he suspects that Reynolds has gone solo and changed his appearance.

Then Pirtle gets a clue.  He finds an ad in a newspaper from a woman looking for her brother and the picture looks like Reynolds.  He visits Ella Stringfellow and discovers that Frank Reynolds is really her twin brother.  He left home two days after his father, a Mormon bishop, was shot down in the street and Ella hasn't seen him since.  But lately, she has been receiving money from someone identifying himself only by an initial.  As Ella gives Boyd the information she has, she also gives him groundshaking information.  Her father had been undercover and was involved in a Mormon plot to take over the government.  Her father had traded Mormon land for positions in the Rangers and in political bodies like legislatures and even governorships.  This kind of information has to investigated immediately and sent on to higher-ups.  

After the Mormon investigation is finished, Boyd and his partner pick up the trail of Reynolds.  He has been sighted in Colorado Springs and they head that way.  But Ella, who gets her brother's location from Boyd, also travels that way, hoping to find her brother before the Rangers do.  Who will get there first?

John Dwaine McKenna writes novels about the Colorado area where he has lived for over fifty years.  His portrayal of the West in 1901 when oil had just been discovered in Texas and when the Old West was winding down will be interesting to readers.  The relationship between Ella and Boyd is strong yet they have differing ends that will draw them apart.  The writing is strong and draws the reader in.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction and books about the West.