Title: A Good Man
Author: Guy Vanderhaeghe
Release: January 2012
Pages: 448
Genre: Historical Romance
The long awaited final chapter in a trilogy of sweeping romantic drama has finally arrived; two decades after Vanderhaeghe began his tale of morality, romance and espionage set in the 1870s and straddling the historic American Midwest and Canadian Prairies.
The series is a set of stories with a loose connection between books, making this an excellent stand-alone story or as part of the on-going series. This is the latest installment of a series that has won Canadian author Vanderhaeghe critical acclaim including the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, a short listing for the coveted Giller Prize, an adaptation of the first of the series for CBS television and CBC’s Top Reads award.
An intricately plotted rich tale it takes place during one of the most pivotal times in Canadian and American history. In this book we follow the fortunes of Wesley Case as he tries to make his mark in a world peopled by such real-life characters as Sitting Bull and Major James Morrow Walsh. The two were bound in history by Sitting Bull’s flight to Canada after defeating Custer at Little Big Horn. In Canada he sought asylum for his people and Walsh tried to shield the valiant chief from the vengeance of an American people out for blood and revenge.
Wesley heads to the wilds of Montana to create a life for himself with a cattle ranch, but soon finds himself embroiled with both the bigger issues of the survival of the American Indians and the personal issues of his unexpected romance with the widow Ada Tarr. When the two find themselves the target of a jealous admirer of Ada’s, the erratic and dangerous American spy Michael Dunn, Wesley and Ada are caught up in intrigue, calamity and more.
A Good Man is that rare book, a story that leaves you breathless to know the next move, and so intelligently told that you have to stop from time to time and re-read a phrase or two, just to savor the language. The romance between Wesley and Ada sweeps through the plot, with plenty of twists and turns and then brings it to a smashing and very satisfying end.