Review: Third Bodie Kendrick A Winner
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 30, 2013
One thing I liked about DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH is the incorporation of real history that forces me to do a little research. I'd vaguely heard about the U.S. Cavalry's experiment with Camel Corps. Mr. Dundee uses that knowledge with a bit of fiction in the third adventure of Bodie Kendrick, bounty hunter by profession.Heading into the small town of Lowdown looking for a bounty reported in the area, Bodie breaks up a stage hold-up, killing two in the process and driving the other pair off, he's introduced to Amelia Gailwood and her party, two other men and a second woman.The shotgun guard is dead, one of the passengers dying, and the driver wounded.Bodie has to stick around while the bounties on the pair are authorized and Amelia hires him to fulfill the duties of the dead passenger, a private eye hired as a sort of bodyguard. Amelia is a writer working on the story of a lifetime.She admits to being on the trail of a fabulous gem from the time of Caeser and Cleopatra and it's secret hiding place. The trail leads them across the desert, into the mountains where a group of Apache cause problems. Not to mention the gang of gunmen hired by a competitor after the same prize.A bit of speculation mixed with history spins out an action packed novel of the old west.Had quite a lot of fun with this.