Military Writers Society of America

View Original

Dog Soldier Moon, by Mike McKendree Long, III

Click on cover image to purchase a copy

MWSA Review
This sequel to "No Good Like It Is" continues the story of Dobey Walls and Jimmy "Boss" Melton. The writing style, dialogue and historical imagery carry on with the same "you-are-there" intensity. As with another series I read where the full-length story was split into two, I wish publishers today weren't against letting a saga be a saga. Can you imagine "Gone with the Wind" split into two books? I know the movie did it with intermission between, but the satisfaction of that great book -- or "North and South" -- is because the entire story is told intact. I believe these two novels fall into the same category. Everything that made McKendree Long's first novel great carries on in this one as more tragedy befalls the two men between 1866 and 1869. Two Pinkerton men continue to hunt them down for stealing a Yankee payroll at the end of the Civil War while roaming buffalo hunters defile Canadian Fort and rape their women when the two men are away trading or selling hides along the Sante Fe trail. Once Dobey and "Boss" return, their purpose turns to retribution and vengeance as they hunt the raiders. Their journey introduces readers to such historical figures as Chief Black Kettle and General Custer, who massacred Black Kettle's Cheyenne camp, along with the famous Bill Hickock. This second novel rounds out this intensely lifelike western series with a wonderful Christmas surprise. For fans of western history, you have to read both books to enjoy the continuity.


Reviewed by: Bonnie Toews (2012)


Author's Synopsis

In this sequel to his novel, No Good Like It Is, McKendree Long continues the saga of Dobey Walls and Jimmy Boss Melton during the three years following the Civil War. In Dog Soldier Moon, a great crime decimates the tiny Panhandle community of Canadian Fort, twisting relationships and putting Dobey and the Boss on a trail of retribution and frontier justice, yet unaware that they are targets of two Pinkerton teams. Black Kettle, Meotzi, the 'Boy General' Custer, and J.B. Hickok flesh out the cast in this all new classic tale.