Excerpts from Justice Resurgent, Chapter One:
Harmony Rivers, from behind the open door of her balcony overlooking the street, watched them ride out. Although she would not be performing until the evening, she had pulled her red tresses back and had placed a cap with a white feather on her head. Her matching dress of blue and white failed to conceal the figure that sparked fires of desire in the hearts of men. She hurried from her room to the top of the stairs. She looked over the saloon, searching for the right man to carry out the mission she had in mind. Most of The tables were vacant. The men at the bar didn’t seem to have the qualities that she sought—those qualities being pliant yet dependable. Quickly, she decided to place her bet at a table where three officers from the Boise Barracks...
Howard, a local freighter, leaned forward, a shock of brown hair dropping to the edge of his left eye. “I can understand why the Sheriff has his ire up. McBride has ruined several of his enterprises by what I hear. I know for a fact that the sheriff lost some kind of bet with McBride in that horserace that killed Fool’s Gold.”
“Lost the sheriff a tavern and a carriage is the way I heard it,” put in Jones, the other civilian. Jones, who ran the sutler’s store at the end of Main Street, held a mug of beer in a hand that lacked a ring finger from the first knuckle up.
Harmony clasped her hands together. “Yes, yes. That’s all true. What are you men going to do about it?”
...
"Where could we find such a courageous man?” The emphasis of those last two words reached out like an inviting hand. Howard brushed back the shock of hair from beside his eye and he lost himself for a moment in the look of silent supplication Harmony cast his way. “I’ll take that horse, Mr. Quartermaster. Take me to your stable.”
...
“I guess you could say that.” Howard took the cup of coffee and warmed both hands against the sides of the tin cup. “The sheriff has a bundle of warrants for all of the vigilante committee. He aims to take you all in your beds tonight and figures at least one of you will be killed while resisting.”
With this last statement he cast a glance at McBride through the lock of hair over his eye.
“Meaning me, I suppose.”
“I suppose,” Howard nodded.
________________
I really like this opening chapter. The trauma, the conflict, and the tension are put in motion. We see (even if we haven't read the first book) that Upton and McBride are going to be at odds in the story. We see that Harmony is an ally persuasive enough to get a man with no dog in the fight to do her bidding to help McBride. The two forces are set in motion like trains heading toward each other on the same track. Will the sheriff take McBride or the other vigilantes, or will McBride be able to stymie the sheriff's nefarious scheme?
Naturally, the drama plays out with lots of adhesive tension and the stakes continue to rise up until the thrilling conclusion punctuated in blood and bullets. There's a reason that this book has more reviews than any other novel I've written. There are plenty of skirmishes leading up the the final showdown, so it's NOT a slow burn story. Detective work, romance, and gun play all combine to escalate and intensify the conflict.
The characters are memorable; we know on which side of the good versus evil equation they fall. The hats aren't black and white, but the moral character is. I'll have to use them to illustrate my theories on crafting characters in another post.
No comments:
Post a Comment