cover image The Ghost of Major Pryor: A Novel of Murder in the Montana Territory, 1870

The Ghost of Major Pryor: A Novel of Murder in the Montana Territory, 1870

Donald Honig. Scribner Book Company, $22 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-684-80322-7

In his second adventure, U.S. Army Captain Thomas Maynard (The Sword of General Englund) pursues a ghost. Five years after the Civil War, a Montana Territory gold miner sees a man in the town of Baddock who looks like his former commanding officer. Major Andrew Pryor, however, had supposedly been killed in battle and buried with honors. Unable to ignore the suggestion of possible desertion, a skeptical general orders Maynard to investigate. Maynard arrives in Baddock to learn that the miner was murdered the day after he'd seen this apparition. Having little to go on, Maynard seeks out possibilities among the many Braddock men who might have reason to assume new identities. Was the ""ghost"" Lucas Bell, the enigmatic gambler and brothel keeper turned local leader? A storekeeper, a banker and lawyer might also be hiding unsavory pasts. Honig greatly expands his hero's character in this tale, as Maynard falls hard for the prostitute Theodora and, further, must decide whether or not his undercover assignment justifies joining vigilantes bent on lynching stagecoach robbers and murderers. Again demonstrating his mastery of time and place, Honig offers a rich portrayal of life in a boomtown that promises riches but constantly threatens heartbreak or violent death. (Mar.)