TO THE GATES OF HELL by David Nix

This review originally appeared in the February 2023 issue of Historical Novel Society

Jake Paynter is a Civil War soldier turned Wyoming lawman with cold eyes who nevertheless inspires loyalty and devotion from those on his side. Jake has forged bonds with his deputies, former Buffalo soldier Gus, and Gus’s love interest Stacy, who is half Shoshone and has a firecracker personality, as well as with Shoshone elder and expert tracker Beah Nooki. Now the merciless Van Zandt gang has brought their thieving ways and tyranny to Jake’s town in the Wind River region. The Van Zandt threat compounds when the gang abducts the object of Jake’s unexpressed affections, schoolmarm Rosalyn, along with four of her young pupils. Jake and his posse set out in doggedly relentless pursuit through western Wyoming to Yellowstone, forming an uneasy alliance along the way with Rosalyn’s ambitious but duplicitous brother and his evil henchmen who have deeply held scores to settle with Jake.

The pacing from scrap to scrap is pleasingly fast. Jake is righteous in his pursuit of justice and respectful of the native ways, conveying a sense of spirituality in him that is perhaps rooted in religion, since “most folks who rode with Death at least learned to pray.” While the formula of a larger-than-life alpha male taking on the bad guys in rugged western landscapes with a blaze of gunfire for the love of a woman may be well-trod, this third book in the Jake Paynter series is written by an author with roots in the region who is well-versed in its geography and history. This book will appeal to readers seeking constant forward momentum and explosive action sequences in a familiar Western novel storyline.