🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
After a price is put on his head, Milburn has fled America, and is patrolling as a captain of a detachment of Rurales. A gun for hire, for the Mexican Government, riding down those who are rebelling against President Diaz. When a rendezvous for a captive doesn’t go exactly to plan, Milburn seriously considers hightailing it with the large amount of silver he’s also carrying. But Milburn is an honest man, and so continues to take the captive to prison on his own. Which is when everything falls apart for him.
Now imprisoned in a filthy cell, Milburn finds out that members of his detachment betrayed him. He’s told that if he tries to escape, he’ll be shot, and worse, kept alive. After several months wasting away with little food or even facilities to clean himself in, he’s told he’s to be transported to Chihuahua – some 800 miles away, to await his fate. On the long ride there, he meets a fellow prisoner. He’s also been falsely imprisoned and is also a victim of corrupt Mexican officials. They bond on the journey north, and slowly become friends. They help each other – help feed each other, and most importantly, keep each other sane.
While The Long Ride wasn’t particularly ground breaking, and had a slow, meandering story (even considering that it is a short story), it’s still a great read. You can almost feel the heat of the Mexican sun beating down on your head, smell the stench of the filthy prisons, feel the grit of the sand in the back of your throat and in all the places sand somehow gets. It’s written with excellent descriptive language, and that alone makes it worthy of a 4 moon rating.
It’s a tale of corruption, of false justice and of friendship. In this short story, there are acts of bravery, acts of cowardice and acts of touching honour.
S. A
This review was originally published on Reedsy Discovery as part of their Reviewer Program. You can read the original review here.
You can buy The Long Ride by clicking on the name of the book.