Brief description:
Donald Honig's post-Civil War mystery, The Sword of General England, received extraordinary acclaim from the critics. Now he returns with Captain Thomas M. Maynard’s second investigation. Barley Newton is cold sober the day he walks down the dusty street in the gold-mining town of Baddock in the Montana Territory. The year is 1870, and Barley knows he couldn't have seen what he just saw: The man who passes him on the street is Major Andrew Pryor. But this is impossible! Pryor was Barley’ s commander in one of the bloodiest of all Civil War battles. And Pryor was killed in battle in 1864, more than five yearsago. His body was found and buried.
So why is Barley so sure it’s Pryor he sees in the remote town of Baddock? And, stranger still, why is Bariey Newton found dead soon after the mysterious encounter?
Back in Washington, officials at the War Department want some answers. It is almost unheard of for an officer to desert his troops. If Pryor, a West Point man, is indeed still alive, he must be apprehended and punished for the traitor he is. But Pryor has clearly taken a new name and identity and may be difficult to locate now that Barley Newton is dead. Capttain Thomas Maynard, traveling incognito, is sent west to investigate. Betore Barly died, he made clear that Pryor was prominent in the town—perhaps the banker, the lawyer, the doctor, the businessman—some-one with much to lose if his identity were revealed. And Maynard, too, has much to lose, perhaps even his life, if Pryor discovers that Maynard is on his trail.
In a tale of greed, murder, and aching love, Maynard must deal with his growing attraction to Theo, a beautiful, enigmatic prostitute, even as he plays a deadly cat-and-mouse game against Pryor, with survival as the prize.
So why is Barley so sure it’s Pryor he sees in the remote town of Baddock? And, stranger still, why is Bariey Newton found dead soon after the mysterious encounter?
Back in Washington, officials at the War Department want some answers. It is almost unheard of for an officer to desert his troops. If Pryor, a West Point man, is indeed still alive, he must be apprehended and punished for the traitor he is. But Pryor has clearly taken a new name and identity and may be difficult to locate now that Barley Newton is dead. Capttain Thomas Maynard, traveling incognito, is sent west to investigate. Betore Barly died, he made clear that Pryor was prominent in the town—perhaps the banker, the lawyer, the doctor, the businessman—some-one with much to lose if his identity were revealed. And Maynard, too, has much to lose, perhaps even his life, if Pryor discovers that Maynard is on his trail.
In a tale of greed, murder, and aching love, Maynard must deal with his growing attraction to Theo, a beautiful, enigmatic prostitute, even as he plays a deadly cat-and-mouse game against Pryor, with survival as the prize.
Publication
Scribner (1997), Edition: First Edition, 288 pages
Original publication date
1997