Doug’s Rating    

Indigo Heaven by Mark Warren

Published by Gale, a Cengage Company, July, 2021.

Indigo Heaven is a stand-alone novel by Mark Warren, author of the historical fiction trilogy of the life of Wyatt Earp.  The story has many of the elements of a good old western novel---cowboys, Indians, horses, bad guys, good guys, a hero of unimpeachable integrity, a damsel in distress, a villain.  I began reading Indigo Heaven one evening and before I knew it I was past page 100.  The novel’s main character, Clayton Jane, is a Confederate veteran from Georgia who experiences the tragedies and horrors of the Civil War and the resultant PTSD.  Wounded and with the fighting over he was told to go home, but, rather than turn south, he looked west and ends up on a ranch in Wyoming.  Hard work, dedication and ten years later “Clayt” is the ranch foreman, enjoying the respect and camaraderie of his fellow ranch hands.  Things become complicated when the ranch owner’s brother and the brother’s wife arrive from back East.  Later, a Pinkerton detective arrives in advance of President U.S. Grant’s visit to Laramie.  Beautiful prose, interesting characters, vivid descriptions of the Big Sky country of Wyoming world abound in this beautifully written novel.  If you loved Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove then I think you’ll love Indigo Heaven.

Doug Robinson

August, 2021