Riders of the coyote moon
By: L.P. Holmes
Publisher: Chivers; Camden
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Bath
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781471326622; 9781471326639
Subjects: Large type books; Indians of North America; Fiction
Description: "Reece Canby, owner of the Diamond RC, spent years as a youngster on the nearby Mescalero Apache reservation. By treaty Chief Antone's Mescalero tribe has ownership of the Sentinel Basin as grass for the tribal herd. Now this graze land is desired by Sax Starke and Chelso DeLacca of the Teepee spread in order for them to expand their own cattle herd. The first step in their master plan is to stir up trouble with the Mescaleros so that the federal government will have to intervene. Dobe and Ponco, Mescaleros Reece has known since childhood, stand accused of cattle rustling by two witnesses, both men employed by Teepee. The trial has split public opinion in the town of Cassadora, on one side some ranchers who would also like to annex parts of the Sentinel Basin, against whom stands Reece Canby and a few townspeople sympathetic to the Apaches. It certainly looks like Starke and DeLacca have succeeded when the two Mescaleros riders are found guilty, but Reece with some help is able to get that verdict reversed after one of the eyewitnesses confesses before Judge Marland that the rustling charge was a fraud. However, that reversal is frustrated when Ponco and Dobe are lynched by persons unknown. Sheriff Mike Partman has thrown his allegiance to Starke and DeLacca and is reluctant even to investigate an attempt on Reece's life. A bloody conflict seems inevitable unless the lynchers can be identified and brought to justice, with Reece Canby and his allies in a desperate fight against time and a good part of the ranching community and the sheriff." --Publisher's description.