Bitter Creek’s Redemption

Title: Bitter Creek’s Redemption
Author: TA Chase
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: Historical, Western
Length: Novel (55,000 words)
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

A Guest Review by Aunt Lynn

THE BLURB

Bitter Creek is a town on the brink of war.

Lines are being drawn and sides taken as two powerful men gather armies of gunfighters. The townspeople are helpless and the law worthless. One man has already died in the opening salvo of this land war and an air of fearful anticipation hangs over the town.

Eagle, the half-breed who works at the livery stable, manages to survive by not taking sides, until one day a stranger rides into town. Eagle’s life changes, and he realizes that he can no longer hide with his horses if he wishes to be the man he claims to be…

THE REVIEW

Bitter Creek’s Redemption is told in alternating third-person POVs. The story opens with Eagle, a mixed-breed Comanche who runs the livery stable in Bitter Creek, seeing a friend, Ralph, through the last few hours of his life after a terrible gunshot wound. Eagle knows this is a by-product of a range war for land between two major stakeholders in town, but, in an effort to stay out of it to stay alive, does nothing but bury his friend, hide his horses, and mail a letter that Ralph asked him to post. Soon there is a stranger in town, one with cold eyes, but one that Eagle is attracted to nonetheless. Travis is his large family’s “Helper,” the one that travels across the country in times of need and takes care of whatever needs to be taken care of, no matter the job. Here to find out what happened to his kin, the two forge a reluctant relationship in order to find out the truth and save his family’s land from whatever forces are trying to take it away, both suspecting that the situation is much bigger than a simple land grab.

I really liked this well-plotted and -written tale of the effects of greed and the power of family, with fleshed-out characters and a good story. In some ways, it’s a fairly typical action-packed Western with showdowns in the center of town, greedy, lawless landowners who want more, and bad feelings between the White men and the Indians.

I liked the protags, both men “helpers,” though one by choice, the other not. Half Breed Eagle is a helper by nature, though his only dream is to live quietly somewhere and raise horses. Enduring insults and being overlooked and ignored daily, he’s living in a world in between the two cultures, not fully accepted on either side. I thought his philosophical, yet realistic view of life was practical, keeping him alive and out of trouble.

He knew some of the cowboys thought he was a coward and weak. The opinion of others rarely mattered to Eagle. All he cared about was surviving the white man’s world and if that meant turning the other cheek at times, he’d swallow his pride and do it.

I liked that Eagle seemed to be able to let his true personality come out when he was with Travis; smiling and laughing more despite the situation they were in, more caring and tender, more demonstrative. Always accepting of his “unnatural urges,”  he rarely acts upon them in order to stay alive.

I felt that Travis really grew emotionally during the course of the story, which is something that always makes me happy. A drifter as part of his Helper role, he never grew roots anywhere and he was pretty happy that way. As he says, his two closest companions have been death and violence, and has not allowed anyone to become one close to him despite the size of his family. He has become very good at repressing his urges and denying himself, and I found him to be a sympathetic character, scarred physically and emotionally from an event from his younger life that makes him shy away from any sexual contact with men. Confused over feelings he’s never had nor understands, I liked watching him change his attitude toward Eagle, Eagle’s family, and Native Americans in general. I also liked his change toward his family, standing up to them when he never had before, and how he wants to make changes in how he lives his life.

There is a plethora of secondary characters — families on both sides, various town-folk — the majority of whom are well-developed. I found it realistic that some members of each of their families would, in varying degrees, accept — or not — their relationship.

The writing style incorporates prose that is almost stilted in the sentence structure, with shorter, almost choppy sentences, but that is not a negative. For me, it fit the mood and setting of the story perfectly. Lastly, I guessed the reveals early on, but that didn’t spoil it for me.

OVERALL

If you are in the mood for a good story with strong characters in a 19th Century Western setting, I’d highly recommend you pick this one up.