May 28, 2007
Known for her popular Calder saga set in Montana (Calder Storm
, etc.), Dailey turns her attention to the Ten Bar Ranch, near Glory, Wyo. (pop. 51), run by a young, laid-back widower, Luke McCallister. Still grieving over losing his family four years earlier, Luke, who swigs whiskey to dull the pain, isn’t particularly rattled when a skeleton turns up on his property. He is surprised, however, by his attraction to redheaded Angie Sommers, an Iowa school teacher who comes to Glory after being notified that the remains appear to be of Henry James Wilson, her long missing grandfather. Henry James’s grandfather was Ike Wilson, a train robber executed on the gallows: the skeleton’s presence on Luke’s land suggests that Ike’s missing treasure may be there, too. Saddlebags Smith, a local gold-hunting eccentric, warns the two that “lookin’ for that gold will make you crazy,” while Luke’s ranch hands and another townie complicate matters. Veteran tale-spinner Dailey depicts ranching life with a sure-handed, affectionate humor.
June 1, 2007
A skeleton discovered on the Ten Bar Ranch in eastern Wyoming and purported to be her long-lost grandfather sets Angie Sommers on a treasure hunt for the gold her train-robber ancestor supposedly hid there, and for which her grandfather was searching when he disappeared. Several inhabitants of Glory are equally desperate to claim the treasure for themselves, but Angie hires grief-stricken Luke McCallister, the Ten Bars owner, to guide her. As the quest continues, it seems no one but Luke, still mourning the loss of his wife and child several years ago, is unaffected by greed and ambition. In a departure from her many romances, Daileys mainstream tale of a moribund towns struggle to survive, fighting despair with faith and trying to reconcile their needs and desires with the demands of hospitality and neighborliness, is curiously gripping.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)