Lou Bradshaw tells me he has two favourites of his own novels. One is his western, CAIN JUST CAIN, second in the
Cain series.
Here his hero, Shadrac Cain, develops from ‘rock-hard
outdated mountain man’ into ‘a soft-hearted defender of the weak and abused.’
The Dooly Gang are raiding out of Texas. When these
outlaws kidnap a 3-year-old boy and a woman, Shadrac Cain pursues them into the
Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Paraphrasing Wikipedia: The Sangre de Cristo Mountains (Spanish for
‘Blood of
Christ’) are the southernmost subrange of
the Rocky Mountains, located in southern Colorado and
northern New Mexico. They run from Poncha Pass in South-Central Colorado, trending southeast
and south, ending at Glorieta Pass, southeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The mountains
contain a number of thirteen and fourteen
thousand foot peaks. Blanca Peak in Colorado is the highest, at
14,351 feet (or 4,374 metres.)
Although the particular origin of the name Sangre de Cristo is
unclear, it’s been used since the early 19th century. It may refer to the
occasional reddish hues observed during sunrise and sunset, especially when the
mountains are covered with snow.
According to one tradition, 'sangre de
Cristo' were the last words of a priest who was killed by Native
Americans.
Glorieta Pass was the site of the decisive
battle of the New Mexico Campaign of the American Civil War, fought near the pass between March 26th and
28th 1862. The victory by the Union Army (primarily in
the form of the Colorado Militia) was low scale with similar casualties on both
sides: about 50 men killed and 80 wounded. But it was significant in that it prevented
the breakout of the Confederate Army forces
onto the High Plains east of the Sangre de Cristo, halting the intended
Confederate advance northward into Colorado.
An officer on the
Union side in this conflict was MAJOR JOHN M. CHIVINGTON. He later gained
infamy when he led the Colorado Volunteers who massacred peaceful Cheyenne and
Arapaho at Sand Creek.
Quests for kidnapped children – usually carried off by
Native Americans – feature in many westerns, from films like ‘The Searchers’ and ‘The Missing’ to TV series like ‘The
Quest.’
JOHN WAYNE and NATALIE WOOD in ‘The Searchers’
‘The High
Chaparral’ episode ‘Ride the Savage Land,’ about an attempt to rescue a
girl kidnapped by Apaches, (as played by Claire Wilcox, pictured below) is my contender
for best ever TV Western episode.
Lou’s lone hero, Shadrac Cain, with a dog companion, naturally
brought to mind the movie ‘Hondo,’
with John Wayne in the title role.
Another lone hero with ‘man’s best friend’ as his
companion was played by Brian Keith in the highly-regarded but short-lived TV
Western series ‘The Westerner.’
As ever, CAIN JUST CAIN
is characterised by Lou Bradshaw’s warm, humorous, colloquial and very easy to
read writing style.
REVIEWS:
‘You read
what Cain thinks as well as what he does, all of which he describes in a
delightfully self-effacing and humorous manner. The story is action-packed from
the get-go…’
‘No one
seems to capture the feel of the west better than Lou does with his word and
dialogue craft. The character developments are stone solid and sharp as a
skinning knife. This is a great story told by a developing master of his trade,
as a reader who could ask for more.’
‘I know
that readers of great, gutsy western stories will be as enamoured as I was.’
‘A moving
read.’
