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$11.95 Tradesize paperback
ISBN: 978-1932695-66-3
Rated PG 15 (Mild Language)
The Pirooters
by
Mark Mellon
“I leave it up to you to decide whether I told
the truth or the biggest windy you ever heard
in your life.”

San Antonio, Texas, 1916. Jim Ed’s hot temper
keeps him in constant trouble with his father, Leo
Pargrew, a wealthy lawyer. After a long absence,
the Pargrews are visited by Leo’s father Virge, an
old cowman, come to reconcile Leo with his family.
While staying with Leo, Virge tells Jim Ed a yarn of
hair-raising exploits with his wild granduncle Heck
in search of Jim Bowie’s legendary silver mine
down in old Mexico in 1865 with Comanches,
bandidos, and French Foreign Legionnaires all in
hot pursuit. Enthralled by the tale, Jim Ed doesn’t
know whether to believe it, but one summer at
Virge’s ranch, he learns the real secret of the lost
treasure of Santa Perdida.

The Pirooters is a rootin’-tootin’, wild’n’wooly
Western novel full of action, humor, and authentic
period detail and dialog, one that will readily
appeal to Western and pioneer fiction’s many and
devoted fans. It is an unforgettable adventure
yarn as well as a tribute to Western movies, the
Southwest in general, and the great state of Texas
in particular.
REVIEWS
The Texas History Page received a copy of Mark Mellon's new book The Pirooters. Everyone here read it and everyone enjoyed it. It is the story of the Pargrew brothers, Heck and Virge, who have just returned from fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War. They return to Reconstruction era Texas to find they have lost everything.

That's where the adventures begin. It was fun to read a Texas western that focused on that period after the Civil War but before the over cliched period of the 1880-1890s.

Mark Mellon's book is very creative in many other ways as well. He definitely did some research. For instance, much of the dialogue used in the book is authentic to the period. And, its not everyday a writer can work the "Bolson of Mapimi" into the storyline of a book.

If you enjoy Texas and western fiction and have ever thought it might be fun to go looking for Jim Bowie's legendary silver mine, we think you will enjoy The Pirooters. I particularly enjoyed the twist ending. The real treasure is where you find it.

---K. K. SEARLE
THE TEXAS HISTORY PAGE

Western readers have long loved hearing of stories past, which enrich a time of true cowboys and Indians.  Wester fiction readers will saddle up and head to the campfire to listen to this tale from the heart of the lone state.  This Wester fiction novel is set in the 1916 is full of rich western dialogue sure to draw the reader in.  In addition to a tale of the lost treasure of Santa Perdida this novel weaves in an important lesson in family forgiveness and a whole host of characters.  Mark Mellon has authored three previous novels, including The Empire of the Green, Hammer and Skull and Libertarian in Love, Recommended for readers Age 15 and up due to language.

Midwest Reviews
---Tonya Thul-Theis
"The story moves at tremendous pace to the final violent battle that has an impressive death toll, which painted some very visual imagery within my minds eye.

Most of the story is told as flashbacks to 1865 but the scenes set in the books present provide some very real and relatable situations of conflict between different generations.

Towards the end Jim Ed asks a question that leads to Virge replying, “that’s another story,” and that’s one I’d like to hear too, so Mark, any chance of Virge and co returning in another book?"

Reviewed by Steve M
http://westernfictionreview.blogspot.com:80/

Life in 1916 San Antonio where the civilization has budded with the Battle of Flowers, motorcycles, and talk of renaming Kaiser Wilhelm district to King William is interrupted with long-separated Grandfather Virge Pargrew's retun and recollection of a post-bellum adventure with Indians, treasure, and rides beyond the Rio Grande to the Bolsom de Malpini. It's a ridin' and shoot 'em up.

Seems Virge and brother Heck and Old Mose, the freedman "as old as time," set out on a series of rip snorting cavortations with Comanches, bandits, and a few unappreciative Frenchmen troubling the crew who are after Jim Bowie's Santa Perdida treasure.  Mellow shows his realism as he recount the trio's decision to bury some bad guys, not out of sentiment, but out of practical caution, to keep the vultures from marking their location for El Guapo.
Woven into the tale readers find the 1916 descendants' forgiveness for old Virge and welcome him back into the family fold.

Sources vary on what is "pirooting." Some describe it as making one's way down a muddy street, some call it whirling, others wandering.  The novel's back-flashing manner between 1916 and earlier times make the story a rootin' tootin' piroot of its own.

--Will Howard at The Texas Bookshelf