Dorothy Garlock Train from Marietta

Train from Marietta

Dorothy Garlock

Warner, Mar 2006, $12.95, 374 pp.

ISBN: 0446695319

In 1933 Katherine Tyler heads from her home in New York to work for her uncle as a nurse in a San Francisco hospital. However, her father's business partner William has his nephew Eddy Jacobs, boyfriend to Kate's sister Susan, abetted by two thugs (Hayden and Squirrelly) kidnap her in West Texas during a train stop. William plans to use her as a pawn to extort money and other valuables from her affluent dad John.

Kate's desperate father ignores the warnings of bringing in the law; he contacts the Texas Rangers. In turn craggy rancher Tate Castle searches for and rescues Kate. Tate is shocked by his attraction to the seemingly frail city girl; she reciprocates his deep feelings. As they flee together she proves stronger than she looks, but his handicapped daughter Emily rejects her father, finding a new love; even if Katherine is willing to give up everything for a ranch life in Texas.

TRAIN FROM MARIETTA is a terrific Depression Era romantic suspense starring two likable protagonists, a realistic child with physical and emotional problems (though both are resolved too easily), and antagonists who range from insane to avaricious to desperate. The action-packed storyline never slows down from the moment that William begins his plan, until the final altercation with a crazed Squirrelly. A final twist will surprise the audience, but fits the key relationships between the cast, and hopefully leads to another Dorothy Garlock 1930's thriller.