The American West from 1870 to around 1900 is often portrayed as a place devoid of law and order and the basic elements of polite society. While it’s true that there was lawlessness, with bands of outlaws and lone gunmen threatening the public order, there were also marshals, sheriffs, and Pinkerton detectives devoted to keeping the peace and upholding the law. In addition, when necessary, average citizens banded together in posses to go after those who broke the law. The Posse by Randall Dale is just such a story. When outlaws steal a shipment of bank money from the bank in Peace, Arizona, several citizens join the marshal, his deputy, and the Pinkertons who were charged with guarding the money, in pursuit of the felons. The author has done a superb job of painting a colorful and, from my own research, accurate picture of life in a small frontier town struggling to maintain a degree of civility and order. Every character, from the desk-bound Pinkerton agent who is assigned the enormous task of ensuring the safety of a hundred thousand dollars from El Paso to Tucson, to the deputy marshal I Peace, who quietly, but doggedly tries to uphold the law, is described in a way that the reader can relate to them, cheer them on, glory in their triumphs, and bemoan their failures. The people on these pages aren’t cardboard, stereotypical characters usually associated with the Western genre, but real people, with hopes, dreams, and insecurities.