Dark Prairie (Wheeler Publishing Large Print Western) - Softcover

Callow young Grey Wharton works at the sleepy Little Six ranch, from which he manages to run errands to sleepy little Winsome, Wyoming. In town, Grey invents excuses to see Ruth Whipple, the pretty wife of an engineer, Tut Whipple, who’s developing a controversial new dam that will split up a lot of range land. Grey’s too shy and proper for an overt romance, so Ruth and he haven’t much to talk about except the disappearance of a young Mexican girl, Annie Mora. Tut doesn’t seem to care about Grey’s visits, nor, at first, does he raise a fuss when an older man named Dunbar hires on at the Little Six and calls on Ruth, too. Little Six cattle begin disappearing. Something doesn’t add up about Tut Whipple. The mystery deepens when Dunbar, enlisting Gary as his assistant, shadows Whipple’s big project, ostensibly to investigate the rustling. Tempers flare with Whipple’s crew, a Little Six hand is shot—and then a terrible truth emerges. A solid, compact western from the always-reliable Nesbitt. --John Mort