The Return of Kid Cooper: A Novel

About this book

WESTERN WRITERS OF AMERICA 2019 SPUR AWARDS WINNER! "A first-rate novel."True West magazine "Brad Smith has got the goodshes funny poignant evocative and he tells a blistering tale. A writer to watch a comet on the horizon."Dennis Lehane award-winning author of Mystic River "Smith has written tight fast-paced novels his entire careerand reading one is like riding a thoroughbred."--The Chronicle Herald In the style of Cormac McCarthy a gritty tale of justice and revenge in the Wild West. The year is 1910. Nate Cooper is an old-school cowboy. He sees the change brought by the turn of the centuryhorses giving way to motorcars his girlfriend marrying his best friend and his nemesis running for governorand reckons none of it to be good. The west is being tamed and with progress some things are lost. But people? They tend to stay the same. Even after spending nearly thirty years in a Montana prison for a wrongful murder conviction Nates moral compass is true and unwavering: he does all the wrong things for all the right reasons. So when he returns to his Northern Montana ranching town to find the Blackfoot Indiansthe people he went to prison trying to defendare still being cheated out of their territory by ranchers Nate cant rest on his laurels. With grit determination a quick trigger finger and the help of the woman he used to love Nate sets out to settle the score and force some justice in into the changing world. Before long though hell discover that justice doesnt come cheap.