The Long Hitch
A Western Story
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
Mase Campbell has earned a reputation as a skilled wagon master, heading up freight trains for Kavanaugh Freight. Then one night in 1874 in Corinne, Utah Territory, he is stopped in the street by someone asking him for a match, and shot to death. Those who saw the murder either do not come forward or admit no knowledge. Buck McCready, captured at ten years of age by Indians, rescued by Mase, and raised by him, wants to find out who killed Mase and why. But there is not time for investigation because Jock Kavanaugh, owner of the freight line, has committed to a freight wagon race from Corinne to Virginia City and he needs Buck to replace Mase as wagon master. Buck believes that Mase was murdered because of the competition and that the murderer will probably be on the train. Buck is right about one thing: someone in the wagon crew is willing to do whatever is necessary to see the Kavanaugh venture fail.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
There's no high-spirited horsemanship or fancy quick-draw gunplay in Zimmer's cracking latest (after Wild Side of the River); instead, the good guys ride mules and snap bullwhips in a clever story that packs some nice twists. Best, however, is Zimmer's carefully drawn, historically accurate portrayal of the lives of crusty mule skinners and the perils of the western freight wagon business. In 1874 Utah territory, young teamster Buck McCready becomes wagon boss for the Kavanaugh freight outfit after his mentor, old Mason Campbell, is murdered. With the Kavanaugh outfit engaged in a wagon train race that will decide whether Kavanaugh or a competitor lands a lucrative freight-hauling contract, Buck vows to find Campbell's killer. But first he must win the race, a difficult task considering there's a saboteur among his crew and a hired gun out to take him down, plus the possibility that Campbell's killer is after Buck, too. Add brawls, a wicked good bullwhip fight, harsh terrain, shifting alliances, mutiny, kidnapping, and Buck's distressing realization about Campbell, and Zimmer has put together a believable, gritty, and action-packed tale of the real Old West.
