Coldiron: Judge and Executioner

Coldiron #1

by F.M. Parker

Book description
Judge And Executioner is Number 1 of the Coldiron Series. The series has received high praise from national book reviewers such as Booklist, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews.

With an awesome list of stirring Western novels, F. M. Parker has won acclaim as a master story teller. In Judge And Executioner, he has created a story that thrills the imagination and charges the emotions.
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The time is 1843. Young Luke Coldiron rides into the trackless Rocky Mountains. There he builds a cabin and scouts for beaver for the winter trapping. Far away on the great prairie, his partner Tarpenning steals the beautiful Arapaho Indian maiden Morning Mist from her tribe and carries her into the mountains to give love to the two men in the long winter nights.
Falling under the spell of Morning Mist, Tarpenning refuses to share her with Luke. This often drives Luke away from the cabin on long, solitary hunts.
In the spring, in a battle with fur thieves, Tarpenning is killed. Luke and Morning Mist survive. On the way out of the mountains in the spring, Morning Mist’s horse is spooked by a mountain lion and she is thrown and killed. Luke is now alone with a tiny bundle of girl child, the child of Tarpenning and Morning Mist. Unable to care for the new born, he searches out a family with a new born child and surrenders the child to the woman and man to feed and raise.
During the next twenty years Coldiron builds a great horse ranch in the high valley in the mountains where he had trapped with Tarpenning and Morning Mist. And where he had buried them.
His famous horses bring thieves. Luke becomes judge and executioner and kills the thieves as they come into his valley. Then a powerful Mexican bandit rides north with his fierce band of pistoleros and steals his magnificent heard of horses and drives them into Mexico. And the child of Tarpenning and Morning Mist, now a woman, appears in the mountains to slay Luke for killing her mother.

From Coldiron

Luke awoke from a deep sleep by the sounds of Tarpenning’s and Morning Mist’s lovemaking. He could not but listen to their excited, hurried breathing and creak of their bed a little more than a body length away.
He felt himself hardening and, with an oath, sprang from his bed, jerked on moccasins and coat and plunged through the cabin door into the winter night. He ran through the sub-zero cold, with the rays of a full moon bathing the night in a weak silver light and the snow crackling and crunching beneath his hurried footsteps.
For a long distance he raced through the trees and over the snow covered meadows, cooling his hot, lusting blood with strenuous action. Finally with his throat and lungs burning from breathing the frigid air, he halted.
He stood in the stark, silent valley and let the last of his fiery passion for Morning Mist drain away. Around him the dim shapes of the nearer objects, framed by the snow, could be seen. With distance, the snow and trees faded into an amorphous gray whiteness. Against the sky to the north, the tall mountain peaks blocked out a hand’s width of twinkling stars.
His frost nipped ears began to ache for he had left without his cap. H e cupped the aching ears into his hands, turned and started the return journey to the cabin.

Genres: Westerns

271 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 1984

About the author

As a boy F. M. Parker hitchhiked around the country working as a sheepherder in Montana, a bellhop in Colorado, and a logger in Ohio. He received a B. S. in Geology from the University of Dayton, and did graduate work in Geology at Ohio State University. He worked in the factories of GM and Chrysler at night to put himself through college. After that he went into the U. S. Navy for 5 « years with service in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans aboard the Timbalier, AVP 54, a seaplane tender.

After the navy he was employed as a geologist in the oil fields of Kansas, and as an exploration geologist in the uranium mines of Utah. After four years as a geologist, Parker became a manager in the Bureau of Land Management, part of the Department of Interior. He worked in several western states and Washington, DC, then progressed up through the ranks to become District Manager of the Vale District in Oregon, which is as much as 5 million acres. He was responsible for the management of the multiple resources of the land and its environmental protection. He was responsible for hundreds of grazing permits, several herds of wild horses, wild rivers, wildlife, recreation, timber, fire fighting and other factors regarding such a large land area.

Doubleday published his first book in 1981. The title was Skinner and there was an interesting story behind that title. The chairman of the grazing advisory board was named Skinner and the Skinner of Parker's novel was a drunkard and a pistoleer, while the real Skinner was a rancher and a straight arrow. Parker wasn't sure how the real Skinner would take the use of his name, but he laughed and thought it was a good story.

Reviews

[Ward G · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid introduction for the main character.
Originally released as The Shadow Man.

This opens up a small series with Cold Iron the main character.
Author pays good attention to detail.
Not to mention, peppers in real facts or events of the time.
Helping his character take his place. Among actual historic events.

A nice blend of fact with fiction.
Decent plot pacing.
All around, has me willing to head into book two of the series.

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exciting action filled book. As Trapper Luke Coldiron switches from catching beaver to staring a horse ranch and raising great horses to sell to the Army. Eventually his past comes calling and he finds real peace

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like this author's novel...will read more.