Review from Western Fiction Review
Dalton's Mission
as by Ed LawWhen Dalton and Loren Steele happen across an ambushed gold shipment, they are too late to help. Everyone dies, attackers and defenders alike. Being honest men they try to return the gold to Perry Haynes of the Durando Mining Company, its rightful owner, but unknown to them Perry has been overthrown.
With corruption and the law of the gun now ruling Durando they are slammed into jail on the dubious charge of having stolen the very gold they had rescued!
The two men befriend Perry but to help him reclaim his mine, they’ll have to strap on their six-shooters and tame the hell-hole that is Durando.
It would seem that all of Ed Law’s books are about the man known only as Dalton, and this is the sixth book in the series. Having said Dalton’s Mission is part of a series the book reads as a stand-alone. As far as I could tell there was very little, if any, reference made to previous stories.
Dalton isn’t a lawman, a gunslinger, or any other kind of heroic figure, he’s just an ordinary man who happens to come across the gold shipment and this leads to him getting involved in seeking justice for those wronged. In fact he’d rather keep out of trouble if possible. Having said that there are a number of violent fights that lead up to a savage final gun battle. A fair amount of the book takes place underground, including a tense escape bid by Dalton, Steele and Haynes after being thrown into a deep hole that seems to have no possible way out.
Typical to many Black Horse Westerns there’s the attractive female – in this case Haynes daughter who is being held to ransom – who you’d expect would provide some romantic interest for Dalton, but as he’s married this doesn’t happen, which for me makes for a welcome change.
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