By Ace Robison

I have just finished Dr. Larry Moses’ latest contribution to the world of fiction literature and enjoyed every exciting page of it.

“Promises” is an action-packed, colorful yarn in the western tradition. If you like Louis Lamour, Zane Grey, and Max Brand then this book is for you.

“Promises” is a sequel to Doc Moses’ first book “The Call”. That book is the story of Thomas Kincaide, an English blacksmith who supports his wife and family after they convert to Mormonism in England (Thomas didn’t convert), then respond to the call of their Prophet to immigrate to Zion. During their trek across the American plains with the ill-fated Willey Handcart Company, Thomas lost his young son and then his wife on the plains. After dealing with the emotional devastation of the loss of his loved ones and recuperating from his own frostbite, Thomas decides to return to Iowa where he had been befriended by a charitable businessman in Iowa City.

“Promises” follows the purposeful wanderings of Thomas as he makes his way eastward against the westward surge of a nation of emigrants seeking a better life in Oregon, and California, and Utah. Thomas is determined in his quest to keep the promises he has made to his wife and friends, including the generous Iowa businessman whom he wishes to repay for his goodness and generosity.

Along the way Thomas becomes a buckaroo, a fighter of Indians, and even more savage white men. He rescues a young white man Marcus Colbert, who had been kidnapped as a child and raised by a Shoshone Indian Chief then sold into slavery by jealous Indian brothers to a pair of brutal trappers. He and Marcus become allies to the Shoshone as the Indians seek to avenge the deaths of their women and infant child at the hands of unscrupulous white buffalo hunters, and he and young Marcus save a young widow who had become stranded alone on the plains after the tragic death of her husband in a wagon accident. Thomas and Marcus form a sort of father-son bond as they travel east with the young, pregnant widow in their protection, finally settling in Iowa City.

Larry Moses’ story of Thomas Kinkaide’s “Promises” is, in spite of some minor technical flaws, a compelling, multi-dimensional, historically interesting novel which the reader will be unable to lay aside until it is read in its entirety. The brutality, the compassion, the roughness, the kindness, of the frontier are all interestingly and graphically juxtaposed and presented in “Promises”.

One has the feeling that the story of Thomas Kinkaide may have a wistful autobiographical aspect to it which, if true, only serves to further enhance the interest and intrigue of the story. In any case, Larry Moses carefully weaves a narrative involving many different, but always related, and fascinating stories into a wonderful tale of the old west. The textured fabric of the narrative always keeps the story of Thomas Kinkaide’s odyssey in focus.

“Promises” is an excellent summer read and is available at Books, etc. in Overton or online at amazon.com.