title: North of Forsaken (A Roamer Western)
author:  Matthew P. Mayo 
description: <b><i>Booklist Review</i></b><b>(Jan. 6, 2017)</b><br /><br /><b>"Ex-Union soldier Roamer, 28, is a woodsman, a homely man with a history of trouble. While waiting for another Roamer and Maple Jack mystery, fans should enjoy Mayo's new series,<i>The Outfit: To Hell and Back</i>(2016)."</b><br /><b>****************************************</b><br />AdvancedReview - Uncorrected Proof Booklist Online Exclusive: January 6, 2017<br /><b>North of Forsaken.</b>Mayo, Matthew P. (Author) Jan 2017. 270 p.<br />FiveStar, hardcover, $25.95. (9781432832414). e-book, $3.99. (9781432834906).<br /><br />Ex-Union soldier Roamer, 28, is a woodsman, a homely man with a history of trouble. Trouble of the sort like when he agrees to help his childhood friend Thomas locate a ranch he inherited. The story starts slowly. Roamer describes every trout tickled and rabbit skinned on the trail while riding north with Thomas and his girlfriend, Carla. Overnight, something awful happens. His buddy Maple Jack, a day behind, finds Roamer alone and bleeding. The two press on, bury the victim of a grisly hanging, and get caught in crossfire. When Roamer finally gets out of trouble, he resolves his mixed feelings ... and explains his tragic past. ...The woodsman's motto is, "The less I have, the more I am." While waiting for another Roamer and Maple Jack mystery, fans should enjoy Mayo's new series,<i>The Outfit: To Hell and Back</i>(2016).<br /><i>--Jeanne Greene</i>
zlib_text: Paface-Cottegia at Haven (Capital)
  
    
  
  Prologue
  
    
  
  Long ago—so long ago that the details of the conflict are lost and only the
  merest legends remain—the world of Velgarth was wracked by sorcerous wars. The
  population was decimated. The land quickly turned to wilderness and was given
  over to the forest and the magically-engendered creatures that had been used
  to fight those wars, while the people who remained flecv^p the eastern
  coastline, there to resume their shattered lives. Humans are resilient
  creatures, however, and it was not overlong before the population once again
  was on the increase, and folk began to move westward again, building new
  kingdoms out of the wilderness.
  
    
  
  One such kingdom was Valdemar. Founded by the once-Baron Valdemar and those of
  his people who had chosen exile with him rather than facing the wrath of a
  selfish and cruel monarch, it lay on the very western-and-northernmost edge of
  the civilized world. In part due to the nature of its founders, the monarc