Published 4th July 2024 by Aries.
From the cover of the book:
A man can flee from everything but his own nature.1890. Lieutenant Gabriel Stokes of the British Army left behind the horrors of war in Afghanistan for a role in the Metropolitan Police. Though he rose quickly through the ranks, the squalid violence of London's East End proved just as dark and oppressive as the battlefield.
With his life falling apart, and longing for peace and meaning, Gabriel leaves the grime of London behind and heads for the wilderness and wide open spaces of the American West.
He soon realises that the wilds of Oregon are far from the idyll he has yearned for. The Blue Mountains may be beautiful, but with the frontier a complex patchwork of feuds and felonies, and ranchers as vicious as any back alley cut-throat in London, Gabriel finds himself unable to escape his past and the demons that drive him. Can he find a place for himself on the far edge of the New World?
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1890. Lieutenant Gabriel Stokes thought he had turned his back on horrors when he left the British Army, and tried to forget his experiences of the bloody Second Anglo-Afghan War. But, a job in the Metropolitan Police, with a first hand view of the depraved crimes committed in London's East End, has only scarred him more. Stoke's job and marriage have become casualties of his desperate need to seek solace and the bottom of a bottle and in London's seedy opium dens, but when he receives a letter from his old commanding officer, Captain John Thornfield, he sees the chance for a different life.
Swearing off his vices, Stokes heads for the wide open spaces of Oregon, in the American West, where Thornfield has settled with his family to establish a thriving sheep farm. However, as soon as he arrives he realises that this is not going to be the quiet break in the wilderness that he pictured. The scenery may be stunning, but the people here are just as eaten up with greed and violence as anywhere else in the world, and his damaged psyche continues to plague him. Thornfield's family are in need of his help, and his sense of justice, and this might just give him the motivation he needs to save himself too.
Having thoroughly enjoyed Matthew Harffy's books sent in the Dark Ages/Medieval era, which are beautifully written, gripping adventures, my interest was well and truly piqued by, Dark Frontier, his first foray into the Western genre. At first, this might appear to be a big step-change, but, dear reader, it is soon apparent that the timeless emotions and desires that motivated the actions of his earlier characters are also here in glorious technicolour - just in an alternate setting.
And what a setting this is. Harffy has clearly done his homework in recreating an American West that, while purported to have been 'tamed' in 1890, is every bit as wild as you need for a cracking adventure story. The environment is beautiful, but full of dangers of the landscape, wildlife, and human varieties - especially the human ones, fuelled by years of divisive history and deeply held hatred.
Onto this vivid stage he drops Gabriel Stokes, a man tortured by his own demons, formed from the sights he has seen during his time in the army and among the violence of the East End. Stokes needs a sense of purpose, and Harffy gives him just that. He has to pick up the reins of frontier life fast, shaping his fixed notions of justice to fit new challenges in a small town torn apart by fierce feuding between cattle ranchers and sheep farmers. Stokes is not a man afraid of a fight, and if the tried and tested methods of the law man do not quite fit in Oregon, then there is only one way to tackle a foe determined to get what he wants at any cost - through a good old fashioned, gunslinging, shoot-out! Yee-haw! Cue a bunch of fabulous characters around Stokes who all come together in a rollicking tale of good against evil, with some nicely contrived twists that make it difficult to tell enemy from friend until murderous mysteries have been solved.
Harffy touches on so much fascinating history in this book. Stokes' background in the army and the Metropolitan Police force of this era are interesting enough, but it is the tinderbox of the American West that really grabs your imagination. The combined effects of the fallout-out from the American Civil War, the Indian Wars, money, politics, conflict between cattle and sheep farmers, and the presence of guns for hire in an all-but lawless land, make for a backdrop in which anything goes. But this is also a land on the cusp of changes, which makes it ripe for a seasoned author to speculate about what happens next too - which he does with the delicious little hook that tells of more adventures for Stokes and co to come.
It has been so long since I read a great Western, which this is, without a doubt. Mr Harffy, you were clearly born to take this turn in your writing journey, and I cannot wait for more.
Dark Frontier is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Matthew Harffy for sending me a proof of this book, in return for an honest review. Also to Head of Zeus for sending me a finished copy, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
Matthew has worked in the IT industry, where he spent all day writing and editing, just not the words that most interested him. Prior to that he worked in Spain as an English teacher and translator. Matthew lives in Wiltshire, England, with his wife and their two daughters.
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