The Sparrows of Montenegro

The Sparrows of Montenegro is a western set in the late nineteenth century. It has all the elements of a classic western, yet includes some original characters.

The story centers on the life of Tree “Bigfoot” Smith, a tall character befitting of such a name, who initially battles some emotional conflicts from killing a man with his bare fist. He joins the US Cavalry and meets up with Cedar Jones. The two hit if off well, as Cedar helps Tree overcome his inner conflicts.

After their five-year stint in the military, they both end up on a ranch near the Mexican border, with Cedar being the cook and Tree being somewhat of a foreman. When a nasty gang of outlaws begins killing some locals, the sheriff enlists Tree to hunt them down.

I think the storyline is quite original. The leader of the gang has a terrifying trademark of running a foot-long spike through the necks of his victims, slicing off both ears, and sticking the loose ears on the tip of the spike. He is one mean hombre, being half Apache and half Mexican.

I did have a problem sometimes with the timeline and believability. For example, shortly after Tree and Cedar start their cavalry stint, they go on one patrol, and then the story skips five years ahead. Tree thinks of a fellow soldier who was shot in a little border town shortly after leaving the cavalry, saying how he really wanted to kill a Comanche if he had the chance. After five years in the cavalry, it seems logical (to me) that he would have had that chance.

Another example of believability came when the outlaw was fighting with someone. The author wrote, “He jabbed the spike into his jugular area without penetrating the skin but enough to make it bleed.” In my mind, if the skin wasn’t broken, where did the blood come from. Maybe it’s just me.

The pacing is consistent, but it tends to be on the slow side. However, it does speed up with the action. The climax happens about two-thirds of the way through the book. After the climax, the pacing is consistently slow through the end.

I thought the action scenes were very well described. Some might consider some scenes to be graphic, and they probably were, but that was the only way to describe what was going on. No need to sugar-coat it.

Shortly after the climax, it becomes more of a love story. I wasn’t expecting that, since there was none of it before the climax. However, the romance was handled very well, and the author did a great job of softening the tough characters enough to make them lovable.

I thought this to be a very unique story for this genre, and it was told well.