The Boy

by

Reno Bachman

Patience, preparation, and karma ultimately lead to the showdown between good and evil.

The Boy is a short, gritty Western novella by author Reno Bachman, and it packs a wealth of story and a cinematic atmosphere into its concise pages. Somewhere on the western frontier, a young Black boy, hidden from view, witnesses a white mob erect a cross before his home and set it ablaze. The child’s beloved father, widely acknowledged as an accomplished marksman, defends their home, only to be overwhelmed by his attackers and murdered, as the boy is held back from intervening and certain death by an aged stranger. The mob, led by a man named Silas Vane, burns down his home, killing everyone else in the house. The old stranger, a former stagecoach robber turned gold prospector, takes the boy in and teaches him the ways and skills of survival until he’s prepared to seek justice for himself and his father. 

Readers never know the main protagonists’ names as they are always referred to as “The Boy” or “The Prospector.” The Boy lives a tough life with The Prospector, but he thrives and matures, gifted with the same skills with a gun as his father before him, and as the pair travel, his reputation is made. He is a quiet, dignified, mysterious figure of a man when he catches the eye and affections of a saucy, red-headed white saloon girl in town. The discovery of their liaison is the touchstone for his vengeance. 

The story is well-paced and immaculately crafted, with each descriptive word carefully chosen to create clear and evocative images of the settings and action. There is all the grit and sweat and blood and raw emotion of a harsher time, unfiltered by laws or common morality. The author does a great job choreographing the scenes of gunplay, especially during the resulting showdown. 

I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this story, leaving me to replay each scene in my head. I recommend THE BOY to readers of Western fiction. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from Reedsy Discovery.