Back Trail by Chuck Mason a pseudonym for the prolific multi-genre author Donald S. Rowland (
ISFDB,
SFE,
Fantastic Fiction) is his vintage western historical action adventure novel, this one a sort of second chance reunion tale as a man in a new position of authority coincidentally returns to the town he was run out of after a long absence, which has changed in ways which make him want to stick around and better things (and incidentally catch a robber gang and a murderer), if it weren't for the enduring enmity and smearing of his reputation to the townspeople that mattered to him, free for a limited time courtesy of Endeavour Press' Pioneering imprint, who are reprinting it from its 1966 edition originally out from John Gresham.
Currently free @
Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK and pretty much everywhere else they sell worldwide, since this is being done via their KDP Select exclusive or else program)
Description
The past is a dangerous place…
Chick Butler was run out of Hard Rock by Jefferson Farrell, who felt that Chick was not good enough for his daughter Jane.
Jefferson was a saloon owner and well-known around Hard Rock for his wealth and power.
Twenty years later, and now federal Deputy Marshal, Chick returns to the town on a job, re-igniting Jefferson’s anger.
A violent encounter leads Chick into Jefferson’s saloon, where he learns that his former lover, Jane, had been forced to leave home when he was run out of town and hadn’t been seen since.
Jane had a son, Charles, who came to Hard Rock to meet his grandfather.
But it would seem that Jefferson merely led the boy astray, filling his head with lies about his past.
With a robber gang, a murder and a son who resents him, the future does not seem hopeful.
Can he untangle the vicious web of lies in time?
Or will he be silenced once and for all…?