Dr Logan Munro from Bloody Trail

Welcome to Nighthawk Talks, I'm Nighthawk - named for my habits not my species. For the next four weeks we're welcoming a few residents of the town of Wolf Creek, who can be found in the pages of Bloody Trail by Ford Fargo. Ford Fargo, by the way, is not one author but many. Today's guest is the creation of Clay More. 

Dr Logan Munro is a Scottish doctor who has seen action in The Crimean War, The Indian Mutiny and The American Civil War. Welcome doctor. I wanted to interview you first since you probably know the townspeople best.

If you want to know about somebody’s health or their past medical history, I’m the one to talk to - but don’t expect an answer!

You can't give us a few hints?

I am a medical man first and foremost and anything a patient tells me is utterly confidential. This town is full of men and women who have their own little tragedies, peccadilloes and secrets that they don’t want anyone to know about. There may have been a past operation, an old bullet wound that they don’t want anyone to know about ...

(Wry laugh)... or maybe something much worse - but I can’t allow myself to breach a professional confidence.


You take your medical oath very seriously.

I live by the Hippocratic Oath in my dealings with patients and I believe that the good folk of Wolf Creek respect that. They trust me as a physician and surgeon. I like to think that folks generally know me as a man of my word.


Maybe you can tell us a bit about yourself instead.

I came here after the War and have seen the town grow. As a doctor I probably get to know more about folk than most. That is to say, as much as they want to tell me. But I get to see where they live, how they live and, since I deal with people from cradle to grave, I often get to see how they die.

Do you have family in Wolf Creek?

(Sigh) I was truly hoping that I would one day. I was married to the sweetest lady, but I lost her to malaria when I was out in India.

(Wry laugh) We lived through the Indian Mutiny, but I couldn’t save her from that cursed illness. That was why I came to America, to start life afresh.

Do you think you'll ever return to Scotland?

No. I have put down roots in Wolf Creek. I like the people – a lot of them, at any rate – and I have shared in their joys and their sorrows. I have traveled the world and doubt if I will ever go back to Scotland. I expect that I will die here one day.

You fought in the Civil War...

I served as a surgeon with the Union. The whole idea of slavery is abhorrent to me. When I lived in India, just before the Mutiny began, I saw the horror of the Caste system. Through no fault of their own there were people who were considered ‘untouchable.’ They were often treated like animals. I hated that. Then when I came to America I found that there was an even worse system. I reckoned it was worth offering my meager surgical skills to the side that was fighting against that inhumanity.    

When you were treating the wounded during the War, did you ever feel like putting someone out of their misery?

You mean, did I ever wish that I could help them pass away? No, I took an oath, which means that I will do my utmost to keep someone as comfortable as I can, especially when they are close to death.

I may not be the most religious of men, but I still have an unshakeable faith in the Lord. It may sound crazy that although we were surrounded by death and destruction, by brutality and armies intent upon annihilating each other, yet in the bubble that is the relationship between a doctor and his patient, I believe that only God may take a life.

That being said, I've heard that you can wield a gun as deftly as you can a scalpel.

(Silence)

We'll let people judge for themselves by reading Wolf Creek Book 1: Bloody Trail, written by the authors collectively known as Ford Fargo, published by Western Fictioneers.