Messenger Twelve:
  Gold Dust, Slaves & A Sing-song Girl
   James Lynn Bartz
  2000 The Westbound Stage, Lake Forest CA USA
   ISBN: 0967875609


Back when this nation was newly formed & raw, Reef Atherton follows in his father's footsteps, trafficking in slaves & ignoring the suffering. Until he becomes owner of four bright ships & the trade is abolished so he reroutes his ships to Hong Kong & China. He sets his sights on the vivacious Robin, daughter of a Bostonian banker & at the height of his wealth he marries her. Then his luck turns, his wife whines & his ships fail to return. He refuses to return to slave trafficking & sets out to find his lost ships. He meets his first Messenger on a train bound for New York where he ships out to the Panama & then on for San Francisco. There he encounters a sing-song girl, a pastry seller & is swept up in the Gold Rush. Reef finds & loses another fortune & hires on as a Messenger for Wells Fargo & Co.

A fast, flawed & interesting read with characters as brash, ribald, conniving & honest as those yesteryears evoke. Sometimes I felt I was reading a film script, leaving much to my imagination - which is prodigous! James Bartz, however, has grasped the essence of a good yarn - keep the action going, don't linger too long on anyone's misery & make goodness pay off in the end.

James Bartz has not shrunk from recreating the lusty times & lewd language, commonplace prejudices & brittle prides of 19th century America - both Eastern & Western. He has written a fast-paced, evocative adventure which ranges from ocean voyages to trudging across the Panama Isthmus; from a train ride to sailing into San Francisco Bay; from tramping out to the gold fields to riding shotgun on stage coach routes; from snobbish Boston society to the boardwalks of San Francisco's wharves.

We also meet Lin Thai-Saing from Hong Kong who has been procuring for his mother since he was a child & later his sing-song girls until he amassed a small fortune & a death sentence which propelled his escape to San Francisco where he sets up shop. There he runs his business out of one of Reef's auctioned-off ships; cons a dying man into selling him his daughter. It is she who entices Reef as he steps off the ship & because he's shocked that the sing-song girl couldn't be more than ten he clashes with Lin & makes an unrelenting foe.

An assortment of people flow through this story; an original Messenger of the fledgling Wells Fargo bank carrying gold dust from the camps; a Mormon doctor with his wives, tending the injured in the wild mining fields on their way to Utah; & a handful of kind & courageous men - both Chinese & America.

Then we meet the girls & women. While his women are all caricatures of innocence or treachery they are the major source for all the men's fighting. Ye, gods! That was a time, wasn't it? Actually, when you ponder on what James Bartz has wrought - you have to give the man credit - it certainly got the life & times down to a T.

I lent Twelve Messenger to my neighbor, Bob, who relishes all things historical about weapons & the West. He came over the next day & pronounced: "Damn fine read! Stayed up all night. He knew his guns! When's he writing a sequel?" Praise indeed!

Messenger Twelve was sent to me for review by the author. I enjoyed the life & times of our young nation & the memorabilia of the Gold Rush & the Sing-song Girls. Do check out my Interview with James Lynn Bartz this week.
(06/04/00)

Rebecca