Book 2 in the Tombstone Shorts Series
“Give me enough dynamite and snoose, and I’ll build a railroad to Hell!”
-Michael J Henny-known as the Irish Prince of the Alaskan Rails, builder of the White Pass and Yukon Route and Copper River and Northwestern Railways
As promised, here is my review of McGuire’s second story in his Tombstone shorts. A novelette that combines Western Lore, Indian Legend, and Manifest Destiny along with the Iron Horses of the 1800’s.
https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/manifest-destiny
Growing up in the southwest, the history of the westward expansion and the rails was always of high interest to me. The perspective that the desert (or the plains in McGuire’s story) from the perspective of strangers are empty or devoid of life is fascinating to me. I’m sure the native people who inhabited these lands long before the Europeans set foot upon them would have highly disagreed. I know that the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe (they call themselves the Tumpisattsi), who inhabited what the white people came to call Death Valley, CA, referred to their land as “The Living Valley.” The Shoshone knew how to find water and food in what seemed to be an inhospitable land. The European Miners struggled to find a kind death.
All these themes play heavily in McGuire’s story. Like his previous offering, McGuire spins a short, visceral, fast-paced tale. We view it from the perspective of young Timmy, the engineer’s helper on Emily, the Iron Horse galloping across the empty plains, toward what is clearly the doom of everyone on board. McGuire’s descriptions of the massive iron and steel contrasting with the emptiness with of the plains sets paints a vivid scene. Through the eyes of Timmy we are introduced to the entire cast, from the rich and pompous Mr. Robert Moore, who is determined to push the rail through the “Dead Gorge,” a canyon that was once a Cheyenne burial ground; to the lowly hobos at the caboose, Tibbets and Cotton, who are the voice of reason, but as always in these sort of stories are ignored until it is too late.
As with McGuire’s previous tale, he does an excellent job foreshadowing. It is not a question of: are things going to go bad for the characters? It’s more, how bad is it going to get? And will any, even our hero Timmy, survive the train’s passage through the “Dead Gorge?”
This is a highly enjoyable, suspenseful, old-style horror story. It’s very reminiscent of my favorite show from the 90’s: Tales from the Crypt.
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did. I look forward to his next offering in the Tombstone Shorts Series. Stay tuned for my next reviews. I will be posting for Rownea Tisdale’s The Heart Could Forget, and Shawn Burgess’s The Tear Collector.
