Less than a year after the events of Little Bighorn, Easy Company continues its mission of maintaining a shaky peace in the region. They are receiving new recruits due to some recent attrition and this novel’s plot centers around those characters although the regulars also get in on some good action. I get the feeling there might be a lot of new recruits necessary for this company of mounted infantry, (don’t dare call them cavalry) based on the body count in this outing alone.
A Gatling gun (known as a medicine gun to the Indians because of its ability to deal out rapid “big medicine”) has been stolen before it can complete its journey to a reservation in the North. The crew has been slaughtered and it appears the notorious Racing Elk and his band are responsible. As new clues come to light, different groups of Easy Company, including the new recruits hit the trail in pursuit, each experiencing their own separate types of adventure.
I’m not sure if it’s because of a different author from book one or if it’s due to the demands of the publisher but this entry kicks up the adult content a notch or two. Some of it is quite imaginative. But the other parts are equally imaginative, including the gunfights, camp politics, and the new characters’ backgrounds. It all makes for another solid entry in the series. Book three is written by Kenneth Bjorgum, another author in the stable behind the “John Wesley Howard” pseudonym. I’m curious to see what his style will bring to these characters.