Blood Mountain

By: Gary L. Pullman

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

After years as a bounty hunter and a sheriff, Bane Messenger wants to enjoy a quiet life with his family. They buy land in Nevada's Great Basin, planning to build a remote family retreat, but when they visit the property, armed men attack them, intent upon forcing them to vacate the premises, claiming Bane and his family are trespassing on private property. Before this new nightmare ends, Bane will strike it rich, be tried for kidnapping and murder, and take on an "army" of veteran soldiers determined to kill him and his entire family.

Q: The climactic battle at the end of Blood Mountain is epic. In the history of the West, has there ever really been a fight as massive as the one Bane's involved in?

A: Yes and no. In his autobiographical A Cowboy Detective, Charles Siringo explains how he outwitted a 300-strong miners' union that was out to take over a town and kill him, and he also provides accounts of other intended attempts on his life by lesser numbers of men against whom he testified in trials following the Coeur d”Alene strike in 1892. An even bigger conflict occurred between the Mormons' state militia, known as the Nauvoo Legion, in Utah and the U.S. Army. At its height, the Legion included 2,500 troops, which was about 29 percent the number of soldiers in the entire 8,500-strong U.S. Army at the time. Although no major battles occurred between the opposing forces, 126 civilians were killed during the so-called Mountain Meadows Massacre. The number of hired guns Bane and his men fight number close to that of the Nauvoo Legion, which indicates just how much his enemies want to wipe out him and his family.

Q: Will there be a fourth book in your An Adventure of the Old West series?

A. Yep.