The prolific Boggs turns in another solid western. Jim Hawkins was a young boy when he ran away from his home in Indiana. He drifted down to Texas, where he made a couple of friends, a boy his own age and another who was a good deal older. Jim's life changed when he and his friends hired on as wagon haulers and wound up in Montana, where a girl came between Jim and his friend Tommy, who would soon sustain a disfiguring injury and head out on his own. But the two friends eventually reunite, in what Jim recalls as the hardest winter of his life (the book is framed as a story told by the much older Jim to his grandson). The book moves a bit slowly Boggs takes a long time to get to the meat of the story but the characters are well drawn and engaging, and the final section, in which Jim risks his own life to save that of a friend, is gripping. Recommended particularly for western readers who prefer character development over action.--Pitt, David Copyright 2009 Booklist

With hardly a shot fired, Spur Award-winner Boggs delivers one of his best westerns. Jim Hawkins tells his grandson about his wild days as a teenage cowboy, riding with Tommy O'Hallahan and their mentor, John Henry Kenton. The three pards begin cowboying in Texas and make their way north to Montana, ending up working on the big cattle spread of William MacDunn. Kenton, however, goes to work for Tristram Gow, a MacDunn rival whose competition is close to erupting into a range war. As tensions simmer, Jim and Tommy are smitten by MacDunn's daughter, Lainie, but it is the brutal winter that gets top billing in this exciting tale. Snows deepen, winds howl and temperatures plummet, killing cattle and cowboys alike. Add a train derailment, feuds, a missing woman and a hard-case gunman wearing a lawman's badge, and Boggs has produced a tender and suspenseful western that doesn't need to rely on gun smoke. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved