Review for
Hard Ride to Cora
by Cherokee Parks

With his first novel, a Western set in Wyoming in the early 1880s, Cherokee Parks delivers an intriguing murder mystery. The story revolves around Mick Swinney, a young Irish cowboy, riding for the B Bar O ranch. While scouting meadows for spring grazing, Mick senses that he’s being watched but can find no sign of an observer. That feeling stays with Mick as he returns to the ranch.

In just a few days the cowboys will move the cattle to the high meadows and as they get started with the morning’s work on the ranch there is the sound of a buffalo gun being fired. A cowboy is on the ground. Fritz, once standing next to Mick, is breathing his last. Who wants Mick dead and why?

Frosty, the ranch ramrod and a Civil War veteran, quickly reins in the cowboys and delays the manhunt until supplies, more riders, and Indian trackers can arrive. Mick sends a call for help to Arizona to his brother who helped raise him.

Ranch work must continue and the hands round up the herd, separating market-bound cattle from those bound for the spring meadows, ever aware there is a sniper on the loose. As Parks weaves his story we learn some of the history of his characters, of Irish immigrants, Texicans, freed slaves, and Civil War veterans and how they came to be in the Wyoming Territory. We also learn that Mick may not be the only target.

Parks deftly describes the demanding work and the men doing that work. The West is changing as more and more people come searching for a new or different life. Open range will become only a memory and those cowboys with steady work must have more skills than just sitting a horse or working cattle.

Upon their return to the ranch from the cattle drive, the B Bar O hands see that Frosty’s and Mick’s calls for help have been answered and it’s time to meet the trouble head-on and put an end to it.

Parks, a man with deep Texas roots, has crafted an enjoyable Western tale, a mystery with a few turns, an Indian legend, and a few surprises. This is one story that is difficult to put down. You just might find that once you’ve finished it you can’t help but want another from this author. I look forward to Park’s next book, The Shamrock Brand.

Cherokee Parks’ll do to ride the river with.

~ Elizabeth Turner, Business Instructor, U of A Community College at Batesville

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