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Take a ride along an entertaining trail with Cactus Jumpers by Andrews Burch. Who doesn’t like a good western? Cactus Jumpers is a classic good versus evil novel when times were simpler...but were they? In his debut novel, Burch introduces us to Emmett, a young man who is working in a carnival. A wise Indian, Old Joe, befriends Emmett and teaches him how to be a trick shooter for the carnival. Old Joe becomes his mentor and shows him how to see the world from a different perspective. Emmett leaves the carnival and ends up on a journey into the desert where he almost dies. Strangers find him and save his life. He follows them to a growing western town called Emerald. The story continues many years later. Emmett is now the preacher in town and has hung up his gun for good, or has he?
Three strangers ride into Emerald named Trace, Crystal and Jade. They are nomads of the west looking for excitement and Emerald does not disappoint! Trouble starts brewing in Emerald when a young girl is murdered and discovered by the Marshal and Emmett’s sons at a local watering hole. The town’s founders are suspect and the Marshal is not going to back down, even if he is out numbered. Will the new strangers back the Marshal or the Founders? Is the preacher going to dust off his gun to help the Marshal?
The author, Burch, spends a good deal of time building the back story of both major and minor characters, almost to distraction of the main storyline I found. The one thing this author writes well about is the interaction between the characters emotions, feelings, hopes and fears. It is not a cut and dry story. The reader will soon learn that the author has taken his time to add thought provoking situations and morals in his plot. He also uses timing well. In the old west, things take time, even if it is just getting back to someone; hours become days and days turn into weeks. It is probably the first western that I have read that has taken this into account accurately. My recommendation would be that Cactus Jumpers would be a valuable book for adolescent readers to learn about life and the challenges it brings in an old west setting. Life was simpler but the decisions made back then are just as complex as today.
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