The Guns of Valverde

Far Western Civil War #2

by P.G. Nagle

Jamie Russell, a Confederate quartermaster, is taken prisoner by Union Captain Alastar O'Brien and is nursed back to health by O'Brien's own love, Laura Howland, who unwittingly gives him the chance to rejoin the fight. 10,000 first printing.

Genres: Civil War, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Westerns

412 pages, Hardcover

First published July 7, 2000

About the author

Also writes as Pati Nagle.

Reviews

[Tim Armstrong · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am pretty disappointed in this one, because I loved Glorieta Pass a lot and I was excited to continue the story. This book just didn't resonate with me nearly as much as it's prequel and I found the story to be mostly dull and the characters to be uninteresting. It's too bad because I had high hopes.

[Jeffos Hagemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not forgotten civil war history novel about Fort Craig located between Fort Bliss and Fort Union. Hardships of soldiers, leadership battleground decisions, and life’s lost in the unforgiving desert of the southwest.

[Patricia Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Civil War set in the West! Texans leaving Texas and off to New Mexico, hoping to get to Colorado and folks from Colorado hoping they don't make it. An interesting cast of characters, some from the historical point of view (they were really there) and of course, some added to fill out the story. Some brave women are added to the mix and help to complete the story. Some of the younger folks find out that war isn't as glamorous as they thought it might be and so it is also true for some of the elders.
Part of a series --all to be set in the Western theater of the war as I understand it.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Guns of Valverde, PG Nagle (historical fiction, western)
Jeff Book Review #235

The sequel to "Glorieta Pass" (my review #220), "The Guns of Valverde" (2000) picks up in the aftermath of the 1862 Battle of Glorieta Pass, where Union forces dealt an almost-killing blow to Confederate plans to seize the New Mexico territory during the Civil War by destroying the Confederates' supply train.

The first book has a lot of those standard modern-historical-fiction romantic tropes that I found exhausting at times; this sequel still has some but a lot less of that. Captain O'Brien (USA) and Lt. Russell (CSA) return and factor into the post-Glorieta actions as the Confederates try to salvage some stolen cannons and move them to Texas for further use in the war. Miss Howland also returns and a new cavalry enlistee named Whistler are the other main characters.

Verdict: Better than the first one and actually quite good. A lot more western immersion and adventure, a good amount of tense conflicts and point-of-view narrative, and good characters on both sides and sidelines of the conflict, but there's a little too much of the drama being driven by social decorum and gossip that comes across as silly sometimes.

Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the second of Ms Nagle's "Civil War in the West" series. I read the first one, "Glorietta Pass" earlier this year and while I enjoyed it mostly, I felt it didn't quite live up to its potential. And it had a cop-out surprise at the end that rubbed me the wrong way. So it was with some small trepidation that I began to read this second volume of the series. But as I read this book, I was gratified to revisit most of the same characters from the first book, be reminded of their motivations, and watch them grow. I was happy to follow the plot as well because it involves more of New Mexico, my home state (although I haven't lived there for many years). There were some spots that dragged just a bit but the last 50 pages or so were spot-on driving towards a satisfying conclusion. No egghead suprises this time. From the author's note at the end of the book, it is evident that she has done a lot of research and I have no doubt that the history is correct (other than the fictional characters of course), but more importantly she tells a good story. It seems that the author has grown in ability some since the first book and now I'm really looking forward to the next in the series, Galveston which should take the characters further in their adventures. There is a fourth book as well coming out in paperback this year although it has been published in hardback back in 2003.