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Lucas Brennan calmly walks into the Little Nugget saloon in Rosarita, Texas, and shoots Race Jago dead. To everyone else in the saloon, Lucas is a stranger, but he gives himself up and awaits his hanging come morning.
Deputy Kip Wakefield is puzzled and curious about what Lucas did, and he needs a reason other than “he needed killin’.” To the deputy, Lucas doesn’t seem like the type of man to just shoot someone for no good reason. So he asks for more of an explanation. Lucas Brennan then recalls back many years and tells his story.
At the age of fourteen, Lucas sired a child with a Native American girl. The chief of the tribe dropped the baby boy on Lucas’s doorstep, sending him a message that he’s responsible for the kid. He accepted the child and named him Chance. As a half-breed in the Old West, Chance wasn’t accepted by some white people, especially Race Jago. But Lucas loved his son and vowed to raise him and protect him.
Years passed, and Lucas met Marietta Silvestre. She was half his age, but he asked her to marry him anyway. She accepted and became a part of his life as a loving and helpful wife. She also accepted Chance and loved him as if he were her own child. Lucas began to realize how lucky he was—and to wonder when it would fall apart.
Fall apart, it did—and that’s how he ended up in Rosarita, Texas, putting a bullet in a man.
Vengeance from Eden puts a spell on you right from the beginning. Who is Lucas Brennan? Why did he shoot a man in cold blood? Why did he lay down his weapon afterward and allow himself to be arrested? As his story unfolds, you’ll find it both poignant and heartbreaking. You might think you’ve figured out what’s going to happen before you reach the end, but you’ll probably miss the mark like I did, which leaves the ending completely unpredictable, just as it should be.
Ms. Sweeney brings her characters to life so well that you’ll really care about what happens to them. All through the story, a pit of dread churned in my stomach, because I knew something bad was going to happen, but I didn’t know what.
Vengeance from Eden will go on my bookshelf as one of my favorite westerns to date.
Ed. Note: For more on Vengeance from Eden, visit Double Dragon Ebooks.
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