Richard Barre's Wind on the River

Definitely it was the eyes: Faded blue, they were, with a hint of things no man and surely no woman was meant to see.

"Your husband around?" the rider asked when his eyes had rejoined mine.
"Inside," I answered.
He weighed that. Twin Peacemakers in an oiled double holster, the butter-colored handle of something smaller protruding from his belt. Shearling coat with the collar up, gray wool trousers over the dusted boots and unroweled spurs. Tooled saddlebags, brass on the buttplate of his rifle. No farmer, yet something about him that kept my fear at bay.
Barely…

Richard Barre was born in Los Angeles and raised in California. He is the author of The Innocents (winner of the Shamus Award for best first P.I. novel), Bearing Secrets, The Ghosts of Morning, Blackheart Highway, The Star, Burning Moon, Bethany, and Echo Bay. Prior to writing crime fiction and short stories, he was a copywriter and creative director at his own advertising agency and wrote and edited travel publications. He lives in Santa Barbara with his wife, Susan, three dogs, and two cats.

From the foreword by Harlan Coben:
Wind on the River is billed as a Christmas story. I guess that is so. But with all due respect to Richard Barre, the description is far from full. This is a love story. It is a Western. It is a tale of loyalty, of devotion, of loss and lust, of family, of quiet heroism, of redemption, of want, of healing. But I guess that would be too much to put on the cover.

Richard Barre has long been one of my favorite private-eye writers, but Wind on the River demonstrates what an incredible talent he is. Does it show his diversity? Yes, of course. His gift for language and storytelling? Sure. But more than that, Richard Barre's ability to move us in ways both subtle and powerful - that's what raises this story into the realm of greatness.