Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Publisher: Virtual Bookworm.com
Release Date: May 2002
ISBN: 1589391934
Awards:
Format Reviewed: Paperback
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Genre: Western
Reviewed: 2003
Reviewer: Nancy Mehl
Reviewer Notes: Some explicit material

Prince of the Plains
By Troy Boucher 

     Prince of the Plains is a fictionalized account of a real person. Henry Newton Brown was the marshal of Caldwell, Kansas from 1882 to 1884. He once rode with William Bonney, also known as Billy the Kid. Author Troy Boucher, using what is known about Brown, fills in the gaps with creative conjecture. He has brilliantly succeeded in bringing Henry Brown to life, as well as placing the reader in the middle of the Old West, with its penchant for self-preservation, greed, and vengeance. Prince of the Plains is more than a story of an era--it is a story of civilization-and it is beautifully told with compassion and perception.

     Henry Brown decides to change his life. He rides away from New Mexico and William Bonney. His path from outlaw to marshal takes him through many experiences, including a relationship with Callie Gentry, a young woman whose dream of singing on-stage leads her to run away from home, seeking a life she believes will be better than the one she leaves behind. Callie's journey is heart-touching and incredibly haunting-and the story of the patent-leather shoes given to her by her mother paints a picture that readers will have a hard time forgetting.

     Along the way, Brown also meets Thaddeus Armstrong, a man whose wife and child were murdered by Indians. Brown joins with Armstrong to bring the killers to justice, but the men discover that the road to revenge doesn't always lead you where you planned to go.

     Prince of the Plains is more than a cardboard cut-out of a western novel with good guys and bad guys. Instead, it looks into the hearts of real people--where the lines between good and evil are not so well-defined. Troy Boucher has written a classic novel that bridges the Old West and the present with lessons about life and consequences.

     Highly recommended!

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