What Law There Was

In 1862, gold rush fever hits the town of Bannack and the people elect Henry Plummer sheriff, but soon 107 prospectors are dead and Plummer is the prime suspect, leaving the town's Freemasons to bring him and his gang to justice

YA-- A book set in the early 1860s in an area along Montana's Grasshopper Creek. The formation of a Mason's group figures largely in a vigilante effort to bring peace to a brawling, lawless mining camp. Dempsey focuses on Henry Plummer as a villainous sheriff using his knowledge of gold shipments for his own personal gain. The complementing characters include Plummer's friends and foes, his business cohorts, the women he loved or after whom he lusted, and the stalwart few who chose to stand against him. The author moves with a pace and sense of momentum akin to that of a novel. Descriptions of early Montana are both accurate and involving. An epilogue ties up remaining threads of the characters' lives and is quick to note which of them are real and which are composites drawn from research. Sound information on the Old West. --Carol Fox, El Dorado High School, KS
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Unmitigated greed threatens to destroy a frontier town in this better-than-average western. Once a ramshackle gold camp, Bannack, Mont., grows rapidly in the early 1860s as miners gather gold dust and residents establish solid businesses. But roguish ex-con Henry Plummer, hearing of the town's prosperity, senses an opportunity to make his fortune in easier, less legal ways. He hooks up with Cyrus Skinner, purveyor of watered whiskey and sporting girls at the Elk Horn Saloon. In ornate epistles to his God-fearing fiancee , Electaok Bryan, Plummer lies about investments in real estate. He murders a man he thinks has learned about his sordid past, and brings Electa to Bannack, only to see his hopes for his fortune vanish when prospectors discover a mother lode elsewhere. Furious, he heads for the gold, manages to get appointed sheriff and, with the help of Skinner, masterminds a scheme to steal shipments of the precious ore. When the death toll mounts, a secret group enlists terrified residents for a showdown. Dempsey ( Copper ) blends fact with strong dialogue and characterizations to bring history to life.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.