Taconite

by E.A. Cook

1893
Lucient Robineux, the head of a New Orleans-based detective agency, is called to his family's long abandoned homestead in Minnesota to investigate the murder of a pair of miners.
When he gets there, he discovers that the investigative assignment was a ruse intended to bring him to the area so a brother and sister can kill him and steal his family's land. It turns out that the parcel is in the right of way of a planned railroad line that will serve a huge iron mining company.
The sister, Colette Luzon, a beautiful but twisted woman, engineers a swindle to seize control of the property. Her brother and crime partner, the psychotic Antoine Gasparilla hires a killer to take care of Lucient.

Robineux survives the attack, but is knocked unconscious into a swollen creek by the shot and barely escapes his pursuers. He is wet, cold and wounded, but he is also determined to turn the tables on his

"Lucient was disgusted, disappointed, and mad clean through. He been played like a violin by enemies he didn't even know he had. He wanted to live out the rest of his years here and had been conned, swindled and shot in just three days."

135 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 10, 2015

About the author

E.A. Cook was raised in the North Woods of Minnesota and has since lived a life that rivals the characters he writes about. As a young man he spent years traveling around North America covering 43 states and trips over the borders of Mexico and Canada. He traveled by box car, hitchhiking, and as a carny traveling with 8 different shows off and on over twelve seasons. He's worked as a hot dog vendor and face painter in New Orleans and has been an Account Executive for print advertising, owned a private investigations company, and is presently a taxi driver by night and a writer by day. Cook lives in Colorado with his Tribe.

Reviews

[Glenn B Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, some disclaimers: I’m a personal friend of EA, we share a love of northern Minnesota and it’s mining history, and we’re both fans of Louis L’Amour.
I mention Louie L’Amour because this book reads something like one of the L’Amour Sackett series books. It is a short book set in frontier times, and features a family history which could easily be fodder for more books.
All in all, I enjoyed the book.
However, it does have a few shortcomings. For one, there is far too much exposition. Secondly, some events are quickly glossed over or mentioned in passing when they could/should be given more weight. Finally, the ending reads with too much finality. I’d like it a little more open ended leaving more hope of future books within the series.
Other than those issues, I found the book engrossing — even a page turner at times. I’d heartily recommend it to fans of the genre.