Dark Frontier - by Matthew Harffy

About the Book

From the critically acclaimed author of the Bernicia Chronicles, an historical adventure set in the American west of the late nineteenth century.

Book Synopsis

A thrilling historical western set in 1890s Oregon, from the author of the critically acclaimed Bernicia Chronicles. An English soldier turned police officer escapes to the American West for a new life, but things in Oregon prove far harder than he expected.

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?

Review Quotes

"What a terrific read this is! A western combined with a sort of whodunit - perfect for someone who grew up watching all the cowboy shows on TV and then morphed into someone who loves detectives. This is a well-written and well-paced book. Gabriel Stokes and Jed White are wonderfully round and crafted characters. The landscape through which they move, Oregon, is both well-drawn and accurate. It feels like the frontier. The attention to detail is something we come to expect from a skilled writer such as Matthew but in this book, he excels himself. I finished the book in three days and it is a book that I know I will return to." --Griff Hosker