Last Train to Bannock

The two westerns I have read by Albert tend to be a bit elemental in their themes of violence and revenge. In its setting - a barren landscape with a lot of boulders - this book is very similar to Albert's far superior series of books writing as Ian McAlister. Perhaps it is the exotic locales of those books, or perhaps Albert put a little more time into the stories, but they are head and shoulders above this effort. Nevertheless, we do have the perpetually unperturbed and rather ruthless Clayburn as the central character here again, trying to get a wagon train (yes - that is the train of the title) through to a mining town before winter sets in. Of course, he's helping out a beautiful woman in the process, one whom he had a brief brush show more with a few years earlier. Like him, she is a gambler, and she has invested a lot of her money into backing the owner of the wagon train for a split of the profits. Unfortunately, the owner doesn't last past the first few pages of the book, and thus Albert (or Al Conroy as he originally wrote this one) sets his tale of revenge into motion. As usual, there is an interesting assortment of characters, and the woman at the center of the book doesn't need a whole lot of taking care of. It's doubtful she could come up with as coldblooded a set of solutions to their problems as Clayburn does, however. They're being followed by a separate wagon train, led by the killers of her partner. That's about all you know. If it sounds interesting, dig into it. As always, Albert never leaves you shaking your head with bad writing. My biggest complaint with this one is that it is too linear, and having read a lot of Albert's other books, I know how much better he can do. show less