Title: The Lonely Spirit
Author: Tamar Anolic
Genre: Western fiction
Book Blurb:
A half-Comanche lawman in the Old West searches for peace in two worlds.
Excerpt:
U.S. Marshal L.S. Quinn shivered as the wind whipped through his long black hair. He wrapped his coat tighter around himself. Quinn rode his horse out in front of the Marshals’ wagon full of prisoners, but he still saw the wagon’s movement out of the corner of his eye. The spring’s rains had added to the melting snow, and the ground was so soft that the mules pulling the wagon were having trouble with their own hoofs, let alone the heavy load they pulled.
Next to Quinn, U.S. Marshal Jake Granter rode silently. Jake’s eyes were resolutely on the road ahead of them, but Quinn felt his insides quiver. Then Quinn felt as though the talons of an eagle were digging into his back. He turned around to look at the prisoners behind him. Both eyes of the Cheyenne warrior they had captured bore into him like black embers of a dying fire. A wound on his face, made with the butt of a rifle, was purple and red. The wound was still open, and blood and puss ran down the warrior’s face. The sun disappeared behind the clouds, taking with it any warmth that the early spring morning may have held.
Quinn looked back at Jake. “Maybe we should get him some medical attention,” he said. “That wound is an ugly one.”
“This ain’t no place for beauty, Quinn,” Jake replied. “He killed two soldiers.”
“The Army is hostile to the Indians, and those soldiers were on Cheyenne land.”
Jake shrugged as the convoy continued moving forward. “We only bring in the prisoners,” he said. “Disputes like the one you’re talking about are for the courts to settle.”
“Courts that favor one side of the dispute.”
Finally, Jake turned and looked at Quinn. His brown eyes fixed on Quinn’s steel gray ones. “You’ve only been a marshal for six months, Quinn,” Jake said. “But eventually, you’ll have to learn that we aren’t the ones that make the law. We just enforce it.”
Quinn clenched his teeth and stared forward again. Much as he tried, he could not shut out the memories of his hunger from those six months earlier, nor his fear of the impending winter. I was driven away from my own home on the high plains and east towards civilization and paying jobs, he thought.
Next to Quinn, Jake continued speaking. “All of this has only been increasing in the six years since the War Between the States ended,” he said, gesturing to the wagon of prisoners behind them. “And it’ll only get worse as settlers continue moving west. We Marshals will get called on more and more.”
Quinn frowned. “Maybe this whole country isn’t a place for beauty,” he said.
“Not man-made beauty, that’s for sure,” Jake agreed. “It’s just the land that’s beautiful, especially out west.”
Quinn’s frown abated. “That’s certainly true,” he said. “At least those westward settlers have that much to look forward to.”
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Readers have said that The Lonely Spirit “is exemplary… A quick read with a huge plot that will leave the reader wanting more. Quinn is a great character.”
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Author Biography:
Tamar’s short stories have been published in numerous literary journals. Her most recent novel, Like Water and Ice, follows figure skater Thad Moulton as he trains for the Olympics. Tamar’s historical novels, such as Tales of the Romanov Empire and Triumph of a Tsar, focus on the Romanovs. Tamar’s contemporary novels include the Middle Grade fantasy The Tunnel to Darkness and Light and the Young Adult novels Two Sisters of Fayetteville, The Fledgling’s Inferno and A Silent Evil. Tamar’s short story collection set in the Old West, The Lonely Spirit, is an Indie Brag Medallion winner that has reached the finals for the CIBA Awards for Short Story Collections.
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