Within Each Man

Within each man there lies a monster. So begins Nolan Cordovano's third novel, a savage trek through the Mexican-held lands of western America in 1832. Its protagonist, Lloyd Reed-- homeless, penniless, and clothed in rags-- has recently emerged from the wild trapping lands of the Rocky Mountains. Finding no better livelihood in the squalor of New Orleans, he is thrust once again westward, armed with only two commodities: an unparalleled ability to track, and partial information on the whereabouts of Spanish gold. As bleak as his fortune appears, it worsens when he is falsely accused of murder. To save himself he must bend to the orders of Captain Thaddeus Stroud, an amoral zealot of manifest destiny who sees in Lloyd a tool with which to attain his morbid aspirations. With prose that reads like poetry, Cordovano explores what happens when an unworldly youth finds himself in the company of evil. It is a journey of misplaced ire, the slow and painful route to self-discovery, and the ultimate reckoning of the actions a man will take once he truly understands what lies within him.