From the Indianapolis weekly alternative newspaper, Nuvo
The Gila Wars: A
Josiah Wolfe Texas Ranger Novel by Larry D. Sweazy, Berkley Books, $7.99
The Gila Wars— the sixth and final book in
award-winning Noblesville author Larry D. Sweazy’s Josiah Wolfe series—takes us
in the heart of Texas cattle country circa 1875. Rustlers are stealing herds for shipment by
steamboat to Cuba “to feed starving families,” as explained by one of the
rustlers taken prisoner. Sweazy fills
his action-packed book with moral issues, considering the great divide between
the few very rich and the rest of the population, as well as the great lot of
people killed in the process of establishing law and order. Like Josiah, and the
rest of the Texas Rangers, the reader is thrust into the an unfriendly
landscape where trusting anyone or anything can get you killed. As always,
Sweazy sketches out fully-dimensional characters and vivid descriptions—“The
coolness of the night was evaporating, overtaken by the coming heat of the
day. A slight breeze pushed under the
door, searching for an escape route…” It’s
hard to say goodbye to Ranger Wolfe at book’s end, but there’s always hope his
story will resurface at a later date, again bringing us vividly into the heart—and
guts—of Texas. Previous titles in the
series, reviewed in Nuvo, include The Rattlesnake Season, The Scorpion Trail, The Badger’s Revenge, The
Cougar’s Prey, and The Coyote Tracker.
Sweazy
will receive the 2013 Spur Award for Best Original Mass Market Paperback for The Coyote Tracker, the fifth book in
the Josiah Wolfe series at the annual Western Writers of America banquet in Las
Vegas, Nevada in June. A new western series
by Sweazy published by Berkley Books will debut in 2014.
Sweazy
will appear May 11, 2-4 p.m., at Books-A-Million, 5760 W. *6th St.
—Rita
Kohn
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