City of Rocks

Joseph Roper was barely 17 when Ian McCandles and his gang of cutthroats rode into Coalville, Idaho, in November 1879. A few hours later, part of the town and Roper’s childhood lie in ruins. While the rest of Coalville’s citizens cower in fear, the untested boy sets out alone and only marginally arm......more

This was quite a surprise to me. I never would have picked up this book but the adult summer reading program at my local library had a category of “pick a book with ‘rock’ in the title”. I thought immediately of ‘rock and roll’ but saw this book was on the shelf so I checked it out. Since I do genea......more

Michael Zimmer's purported oral history-based western proves an entertaining tale. After the first few pages, I had serious doubts about the setup and execution. But by page 14 I was hooked. A solid page-turner, I read it in one sitting. Four stars.......more

Michael Zimmer has been one of my favorite authors ever since I accidentally found one of his books. "City of Rocks" is a rather different type of story. It's a more-or-less traditional Western but from the start it has a different type protagonist, has lots of unusual action, and, in fact, its entir......more