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Who Be Dragons by Hal Shearon McBride, Jr. Virtual Bookworm Publishing
book review by Wendy Thomas
"'Ask my dead warriors about the wisdom of Eschiti.' Lone Wolf launched a handful of dirt toward Howeah and pointed toward Adobe Walls saying, 'I fight to kill them. Not for the glory of Eschiti.' Gesturing toward Quanah, he said, 'I fight beside my friend.'"
It's not always easy to create a believable and entertaining story of historical fiction, but Who Be Dragons manages to effectively do this by artfully engaging and entertaining the reader until the last page. This quick-paced story starts off in Sweetwater Texas in 1873 with Molly Brennan, a "truly fine whore" working in at the Lady Gay. As U.S. Calvary containment, Camp Sweetwater was a remote outpost of a town and had provided a boost to the economy, although some bemoaned the fact that the troopers were often the most quarrelsome of townsfolk. Billy Masterson loves Molly, and when a quarrel erupts over which man is to take her, Billy gets shot and is left lying on the floor covered in dark blood flailing about looking much like a bat. Billy lives, the image sticks, and the legendary marshal Bat Masterson is born. The story then moves to the Llano Estacado in 1874 with the added adventures of Billy Dixon, Quanah Parker, Amos Chapman, and Hanna Olds. Each character's place is established and detailed as the story leads to its conclusion in the battle at Buffalo Wallow.
Filled with enough historical facts to satisfy even the most enthusiastic historian junkie, McBride does a fine job of weaving his story around real events, locations, and dates. Plenty of research has gone into this small volume as indicated by the dialog which is peppered with local twangs and vocabulary appropriate to the era and the numerous small story details like the cost of warm water for a bath. At the end of the story, McBride provides a short biography on each character's "life's path" following the events at Buffalo Wallow. This serves to enforce the validity of the story and leaves the reader with the unmistakable impression that he had just been given a front row seat into a time when rugged men ran the West. Overall, this is a fascinating, fast-paced and sharply written story which brings to life some of the old West's most colorful figures. A quick and highly enjoyable read.