The outlaw Noble Salt A novel

Prolific and best-selling author Harmon (Where the Lost Wander, 2020) deftly mixes western and romance fiction with a heavy dose of alternate history in The Outlaw Noble Salt. It's an intoxicating mix. What if Butch Cassidy, the gentleman outlaw who never took a life, fell in love with an ethereal, hardscrabble songbird? And what if, instead of dying a wanted man in South America, he traveled to the ends of the earth to protect his beloved soprano and her disfigured son from a vindictive British nobleman? Harmon keeps several of the classic historical figures associated with Cassidy's Wild Bunch days (Harry Longabaugh, "the Sundance Kid"; Etta Place, Longabaugh's paramour; attorney Orlando Powers). She also fictionalizes ancillary figures (Longabaugh's sister Samana, represented as Emma; Cassidy's brother Daniel, represented as Van) as well as inventing characters out of whole cloth (Jane Toussaint, the singer; Augustus Toussaint, her son; Lord Ashley Toussaint, the Earl of Werthog). The decision to imbue the Butch Cassidy myth with even more passion and intrigue certainly would have fallen flat if not handled with care. Lucky for readers that Harmon is up to the task.