"entertaining late nineteenth century Americana romance"

In 1890 Wisconsin, U.S. Marshal Hogan Egan looks forward to capturing killer Eli Otto so that he can claim the reward and quit his dangerous occupation. Thirty year old spinster Molly O'Brien runs the family farm while raising four orphans, her nieces and family friend Flora.

However, Molly and her young female horde are stunned when they find two near dead males on their land. She knows one is a Marshall and the other a cold killer, but she has no idea who is who. Each claims to be the lawman, but Molly's heart reaches out to the man she believes would never harm the children or her. She is proved correct when Otto kidnaps her neice to use as a hostage pawn to escape.

This is an entertaining late nineteenth century Americana romance starring likable lead protagonists who know their responsibilities must come before their attraction. Interestingly when Molly faces the Hobson's Choice between the "Lady and the Tiger", she lets her heart decide for her as she believes that the tender and caring he gives towards the young ones is the real Hogan. With a nod to What's My Line, fans will know that Hogan and Molly make this western romantic suspense a HEART'S DELIGHT.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 24, 2007

Summary

In the summer of 1890, U.S Marshal Hodge Egan is forced to leave the comfort of Chicago to trail a killer into the Wisconsin wilderness. He vows that when he brings this man to justice, he will resign from the law and enjoy the good life in the gentlemen's clubs of San Francisco, a dream he has nurtured for many years.

Molly O'Brien runs a dairy farm in rural Wisconsin. To the citizens of Delight, Wisconsin, she is disdained for avoiding marriage while raising four little girls, two of whom aren't even kin. On top of that, she offers shelter to a reclusive former slave who lives in the nearby forest. Though she is admired for her strength and courage, her unconventional lifestyle makes her an odd little misfit.

When Molly discovers two men lying in her field, near death, she takes them home, only to learn from their belongings strewn about the field that one of them is a dangerous outlaw, and one a man of the law. But which is which? Both claim to be the marshal, while neither will admit to being the outlaw. Until she can get them healthy enough to return them to town and hand them over to the law, she must protect herself and her daughters while tending both men and her farm.

Throw into this dangerous mix a sly, vicious killer, a woman with a tender heart, a girl on the threshold of becoming a woman, a child afraid of her own shadow, and one who has the gift of vision, and you have a wild and wonderful adventure, as well as a surprising love story.