Silver Grass

by John D. Nesbitt

"Seventeen-year-old Wilsey Grant is on his own when he meets a traveler on foot. The two arrive in the town of Silver Grass, where the other man finds work washing dishes. Wilsey goes out to look for work and meets an indentured servant girl, an orphan like himself. Before long, the fellow traveler turns up dead. Wilsey goes to work at the nearby Emerald Peaks Ranch, where he hears of ranch hands terrorizing the settlers, and he witnesses the shooting of a homesteader boy. Wilsey shares his knowledge with the deputy sheriff, who arrests a ranch hand. Next, the owner of the Emerald Peaks Ranch leads an entourage of ranch hands and gunmen into town, where they kidnap a girl and offer to trade her for the prisoner. When the deputy turns down the offer, two henchmen shoot him and spring the prisoner. While the deputy is recovering, the Emerald Peaks marauders return to town and set a couple of buildings on fire. Two of the attackers are killed, but the main antagonists are still on the loose. Back on his feet, the deputy is able to put together a group of supporters, and they set out toward the ranch, where they have a series of encounters by gunfight. At the end of the story, Wilsey meets again with the indentured orphan girl and tells her that when she has fulfilled the terms of her service, he will help her look for her sister"--

245 pages, Hardcover

Published October 20, 2021

About the author

John D. Nesbitt is the author of more than forty books, including traditional westerns, crossover western mysteries, contemporary western fiction, retro/noir fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

He has won the Western Writers of America Spur Award four times–twice for paperback novel, once for short story, and once for poem. He has been a finalist for the Spur Award once as well as for the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award twice and the Will Rogers Medallion Award four times. He has also received two creative writing fellowships with the Wyoming Arts Council (once for fiction, once for nonfiction).

John has had a distinguished career as a college instructor, most notably for thirty-eight years at Eastern Wyoming College. He lives in the plains country of Wyoming, where he stays in touch with the natural world and the settings for his work. He writes about lifelike people in realistic situations, people who deserve justice and a fair shake in life.

Recent works include Castle Butte, a young adult novel; Dusk Along the Niobrara, a frontier mystery; and In a Large and Lonesome Land, a CD of western songs for which he wrote all the lyrics.

Reviews

[Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written. Meticulous in period detail and the description of everyday life. Builds slowly. Begins to take off, all the stages being set, around the hundredth page. A western to sip and savor, not gulp to quench an Old West thirst. Recommended.

[Joyce B. Lohse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting, Realistic, Historical Western Fiction –

When young Wilsey Grant sets out to seek his fortune on a good horse with a marginal saddle, he meets a man traveling by foot across the lone Eastern Wyoming plains. They continue the journey together to the town of Silver Grass, where they soon part ways to find work and lodging.
Wilsey soon learns of conflict among emigrants, townspeople, and ranchers when he befriends residents, including a young woman. Tension mounts when his travel friend is murdered, then a homesteader boy is gunned down during a destructive, violent rampage. When he obtains a job at a nearby ranch, Wilsey risks personal peril to seek evidence among ruthless range riders, and help a visiting sheriff arrest murder suspects, in spite of a weak and ineffective justice system.
Early stages of the Old West settlement places ordinary people in the cross-fire of violence, forcing them to decide how far to go to maintain decency and order. Silver Grass is a page-turner, gripping the reader’s attention through the final impending shootout. Author John D. Nesbitt’s direct and low-key writing style brings the story to life with realistic characters. A Western gem, Silver Grass is thought-provoking, engaging, and appealing to a general reading audience.

[Linda Donohue · Rating 5 out of 5]

17 year old Wilsey Grant has left his life in the orphanage behind and has headed to Wyoming to start anew. He meets a man walking across the prairie, and they head to the town of Silver Grass together. The next day, the traveler is found murdered. Thus begins the mystery in the Wild West. Nesbitt’s writing is very descriptive, you feel you are standing right next to the characters or standing in the canyon taking in the scenery. The story kept my attention throughout with twists and turns in plot. There is a warmth and friendliness about his writing that pulled me in from the first page. I feel that this protagonist would make a good series as he matures into adulthood.

[Easy Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wilsey is a seventeen-year-old orphan with a good horse and an old saddle. He’s riding through Wyoming territory, thinking about different things he’d like to do with his life. In Silver Grass, he finds a raw new place suffering from growing pains—townspeople resenting new immigrants, ranchers resenting nesters, and one big rancher determined to be lord over all of them. Standing up for what’s right, Wilsey goes from a young boy shoved around to a young man standing firm on his own two feet. The author is a deft hand at drawing the reader into the story, along with a sure knowledge of life on the frontier. I found it a thoroughly enjoyable western.