The Cattle Conspiracy is a crime novel steeped in mystery, suspense, tragedy, and emotion. It follows James and his girlfriend, Makala, through a long, dangerous, and ultimately deadly journey as they piece together the various methods that an international connection has developed for shipping cattle loaded with drugs across the border from southern Alberta, Canada, to Montana. Our two heroes are regular folk pulled into the controversy by the actions of treacherous people who recognize them as a threat to their nefarious business and by their own overpowering need for revenge.
The villains are cowboys, gentlemen, and cattle thieves. They run the gauntlet from bank officials to livestock buyers, feedlot operators, businesspeople, truckers, politicians, and police officers. For a few, one feels empathy, but for most, only disdain. One feels, too, the human emotions that come from love unrequited and from love both strengthened and imperiled through trial and vulnerability.
This story is clearly fictional, but it is grounded throughout on real world possibilities.
Warren Elofson is a history professor at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He has published widely in British, Canadian, United States and Australian history. In recent years, his books have centered on the western North American cattle ranching frontiers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.