Reign of Terror - Paul Bedford

Frontiersman Jared Tucker has brought his family to a ranch on the Brazos River for a new start in Texas, unaware that roving bands of Comanche, frustrated by their defeat at the Battle of Adobe Walls, are looking for just such isolated ranches where they can vent their anger against the white settlers. An attack on his home leaves a grieving Tucker searching for his 13-year-old daughter, the only survivor of the massacre, who has been carried off by the renegades.

Tucker falls in with buffalo hunter Woodrow Clayton, who has faced the Comanches before at Adobe Walls. Together, the two men join forces with a cavalry column led by Colonel Ranald Mackenzie, bound for a showdown with Chief Quanah Parker’s forces at a place called Palo Duro Canyon. Tucker, along with Clayton, hopes to find and rescue his daughter before it’s too late . . .

I read another historically based Western novel by Paul Bedford not long ago and enjoyed it, and REIGN OF TERROR is even better. He does a fine job of mixing history and fiction and presents an accurate portrayal of the Battles of Adobe Walls and Palo Duro Canyon and the leaders on both sides, Quanah Parker and Ranald Mackenzie, all the while spinning a compelling fictional yarn as well. The search among the Indians for a white captive is a very traditional Western plot, so the execution becomes even more important. Bedford pulls it off, even more impressive considering that he’s an English author and REIGN OF TERROR is part of the Black Horse Western line, soon to be published in England but available for pre-order in the U.S. as well. I plan to read more by Paul Bedford, and if you’re a fan of traditional Westerns, I recommend his books.

Western Union - Paul Bedford

WESTERN UNION is another book submitted for the Peacemaker Awards. As I’m writing and scheduling this, I have no idea how it fared in the competition, but I liked it. It’s by Paul Bedford and was published as part of the Black Horse Westerns line in England.

Ransom Thatcher is a young man who works for Western Union in 1861, when the company is trying to complete a transcontinental telegraph line at the same time as the Civil War breaks out. Thatcher is teamed with a tough, laconic former Texas Ranger named Kirby and assigned to find out who is responsible for tearing down the part of the telegraph line that’s already been completed in Nebraska. At the same time, a wagon train full of immigrants who want to avoid the bloody conflict back east sets out from Omaha, headed for the Pacific Northwest. The fate of these settlers will wind up entwined with the mission Thatcher and Kirby have to complete.

Paul Bedford spins this yarn with quite a bit of skill, juggling several different plotlines and sets of characters and bringing them together in ways both expected and unexpected. There’s plenty of action as well. One of the challenges for any British writer of Westerns is to sound authentic, and Bedford does a pretty good job of that. There are a few words and turns of phrase that don’t ring true, but probably less than would crop up if I were to attempt to write a book set in England.

WESTERN UNION is the first novel by Paul Bedford that I’ve read, and I enjoyed it enough that I’m glad I have several more by him on hand. I’ll be reading them, too.