River of Souls

Pedro Cortez, son of a Taos horse rancher, finds himself caught up in the complex struggle of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) in Blum's loosely historical novel. The American army, confronted by Spanish patrons and Mexican nationals as well as Pueblo Indians in revolt, wages a confused, brief and bloody struggle for control of the Southwest. Pedro and his father attempt to hide their herd in the Sangre de Cristos, but they are betrayed by Indian friends and Cortez senior is killed, setting Pedro on the revenge trail. Falling in with Long John Hatcher and Louy Simonds, a couple of beaver-trapping rustics looking for adventure, Pedro also seeks vengeance on Black Hess, a Prussian known for the quickest blade and heaviest German accent in the Old West. His scores settled, Pedro (now called Pete) accompanies Hatcher and Simonds to the California gold fields, where sentimentality overtakes him in the form of true love and a herd of horses in the valley of his dreams. It is unfortunate for this potentially lively story--one that draws on a rich historical period--that the dialogue is so wooden and the dialect so strained. Blum counters the ignorant frontier-speak he puts in the mouths of his American characters with his own dull bid for political correctness. And while the extent of Blum's research is impressive, inaccuracies and inconsistencies erode the reader's faith. This first novel does, however, succeed in rendering the simultaneous uncertainty and gung-ho recklessness felt by the motley crew of early Western settlers. (Mar.)