Dead River Killer

Yakima Henry #9

by Frank Leslie

Bad luck has driven half-breed Yakima Henry and Sheriff Jack Kelly into the town of Dead River during a severe mountain winter-where Yakima must weather a killer who's hell-bent on making the town as dead as its name.

Genres: Westerns

294 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

About the author

Frank Leslie, the pseudonym of Peter Brandvold, grew up in small towns across North Dakota. He attended the University of North Dakota and then the University of Arizona. Having a lifelong love for westerns--novels, movies and tv shows--he started writing his own western novels about twelve years ago. Since then he's written over 40 under his own name and various pen names. Having lived in remote areas across the Wild West, he currently resides in western Minnesota.

Reviews

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one felt like it sacrificed Leslie's usual break-neck pacing so that it could have a (kind of silly) mystery for Yakima Henry to investigate injected into it.

[Scott Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

"...Yakima Henry is troubled and noble and near-invincible..." writes Goodread user The Shayne-Train and I couldn't agree more. Picked this up at Savers and sure glad I did. Similar to my experience with David Thompson's Wilderness series, I'm considering this a go-to pallet cleanser series when one of my random thrift-reads lets me down. This wasn't without its faults, of course. I feel like things got a little less harrowing once Henry was cleared for the prostitute's murder off-camera and there was even what I think was a proofreading error near the end that named the killer's identity before the character discovered it, but I still loved the book, especially the opening chapters at Alta's cabin, some incredibly rich prose that gets replaced by the numerous plot details as the tale goes along. Looking forward to collecting this series and reading more of Yakima Henry's adventures.

[Donadee's Corner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Brandvold – Yakima Henry Bk 8 – Dead River Killer – Reviewed 8/1/21 – Read 7/25/21

Yakima Henry busting up the saloon when two drunks call him a cheater, landing him in jail, again!

Yakima Henry lands in the small town of Douglas then settles in to play poker, but when two drunks decided, they didn’t like losing to him, they called him a cheater. Well, that is something that riles Yakima, so he went nuts and busted up the saloon and the two drunks. Now, this landed him in jail, again. This was not the first time and he guessed it would not be the last time that it would happen in his life. When the bank is robbed, Sheriff Jack Kelly offered to release him on the condition that he join the posse. Yakima was sure that he did this because he probably figured that he could likely track a mosquito on a warm night. Yakima agreed to join the posse because he knew that the young Sheriff needed the help and he had kinda liked the guy.

Leaving Douglas Yakima followed the tracks right into an ambush. The shootout left two men dead, plus the sheriff caught a bullet. The men left were store owners, clearly, they had no business being on the posse. So, after the gun smoke cleared, they returned to town. Even wounded the Sheriff would not go back with them. So, Kelly and Yakima continued tracking till they found the men holed up in a cabin. But it was not just the men inside, Yakima heard a baby cry, so he figured that there was at least a woman also. After he takes down the robbers, the woman, Alta, told him that the baby was sick, and both the babe and the sheriff needed a doctor. She decided to go with them to the closest doctor in Dead River.

Join Yakima and Alta as they trail the sheriff to Dead River and the surprises that happened to both of them there…

What did I like? In all of these books, Yakima just can’t stay out of trouble, it follows him like a calf to its mama. But of course, we wouldn’t have anything to read if he didn’t. His heritage of being half Native American gives him a soft side that is respectable but during a time when people just could not abide with the mix. He suffers from name-calling and disrespect all the time but over the years builds up a wall to let them run off like rain. His other softness is in his respect for women and children. He just can’t stop getting involved in their problems, which of course, leads to more trouble for him. You just got to love the guy!!

What will you like? Trouble with a capital T leads Yakima into fighting, gunplay, and plenty of mysteries to keep him hopping throughout the book. The surprise that he received towards the end of the book will have you jaw-dropping. Peter sure knows how to make a book play for the money’s worth! His characters are always unique, and his storyline is smooth like Jack Daniels. Excellent editing and beautifully written takes this book to the top of the line. Don’t miss book eight in the Yakima Henry Series, “Dead River Killer” available 8/3/21!

• ASIN: B098GQC7MQ
• Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
• Publication Date: 8/3/2021
• File Size: 1483 KB
• Print Length: 354 pages
• Genre: Louis L'Amour Westerns, Classic American Fiction, Western Fiction Classics

[Anne Patkau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yakima half-breed is framed for murders of prostitute Fabienne, Marshal Dusty, while storm closes passes, bank loot he and wounded Sheriff Kelly want to keep safe in jail gets stolen. Some have motives, what do others have?
Typo: 5.9 damn IS dam

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just fair reading.