The history of the world is writ large in a single word: migration. One might also call it “invasion” in some cases, but moving elsewhere appears to be one of the prime motivators of the human race. We are very conscious of this in the United States, given the mass influx of Europeans into North America and their ever westward movement into areas inhabited and otherwise. A good portion of the western literary genre chronicles that movement and the conflicts between those settlers/hunters and the Indian tribes who were the most recent inhabitants.

BUFFALO TRAIL, the second installment in Jeff Guinn’s trilogy (following GLORIOUS), falls directly into this category, providing a riveting and extremely even-handed account of the time and place that puts readers into the moment in the first few paragraphs. This is a continuation of the story of hard luck wanderer Cash McLendon, a young man who has been the primary victim of his own worst choices and impulses. Guinn does an excellent job of explaining what happened to Cash in GLORIOUS, and this follow-up novel occurs roughly between the winter of 1873 and June 1874, alternating its points of view between Cash and Quanah Parker.

"Guinn does a wonderful job of combining real-world historical characters...to provide a historically accurate work of fiction that makes one appreciate what has gone before and what may lay ahead."

The odd-numbered chapters focus on Quanah, a Comanche war leader who is feeling the chafe as his tribe and others are forced ever farther south and west by the American government, which rewards acquiescence with broken promises. Quanah has an idea that he believes will rid the area of the white settlers for good. It involves uniting the warriors from various tribes that are similarly situated in the area and launching a major attack on a white settlement. The plan is a bold one and far different from using smaller forces to attack small groups of hunters. The other tribes are initially reticent to join him in his endeavor. Quanah, though, is a master manipulator and uses a somewhat unlikely ally to aid him in seeing his plan to fruition, even as he intends to use the attack as a means toward acquiring another bride who is already spoken for.

The even-numbered chapters concern Cash, who, after fleeing Glorious (and a hired killer who is probably still after him), has settled in Dodge City, where he has found rough employment as a Buffalo skinner and bone collector with a ne’er-do-well wannabe author named Bat Masterson. His plan is to save up just enough money to return to Arizona and court the woman he jilted. He is hardly a master buffalo hunter, but when the opportunity to cash in on what may be one of the last buffalo herds in the area comes along, he finds it difficult to say no to what appears to be (relatively) easy money.

Cash does not know that this decision is going to bring him to a date with destiny, as Quanah slowly marshals an uneasy alliance of tribes against the buffalo hunters in the hope of destroying them all. For all of his past mistakes, Cash demonstrates that he has the right stuff as he faces greater danger than he ever has before. His biggest problem is that he may not live long enough to utilize his newly acquired skills, let alone win back the heart of the woman he loves.

I don’t want to call BUFFALO TRAIL a herald of the revival of the western genre --- it never went away, not really --- but Guinn does a wonderful job of combining real-world historical characters (Quanah and Masterson, among many others) to provide a historically accurate work of fiction that makes one appreciate what has gone before and what may lay ahead.