Beautiful but unwell Lucinda Carter is escaping from her life as a "Lady of the Night" in Fort Worth, Texas. Lucinda takes coaches, a train, and a boat to become a teacher in the Middle Bayou, which is all part of her lover's plan to find the treasure of the pirate, Captain Lafitte. Nate Cannon is a green Texas policeman hailing from Oklahoma. He and two rugged Texas rangers are traveling the length of Texas on the hunt for the indiscriminate killer, William McGill, on a trail that leads them to the Middle Bayou as well.

THE OUTCASTS is a novel by Kathleen Kent. THE OUTCASTS is set in Texas during the time of the Old West. I learned more about Texas geography from this book than I have living in Texas on and off for the last twelve years. I did not even know that Texas had a bayou.

Based on the summary on THE OUTCASTS' jacket I expected a romance, that expectation was fueled by the fact that the book switches between Lucinda and Nate for every chapter until their paths converge. So for me, it is disconcerting and jarring to read about Nate's wife and child. Which may seem hypocritical because Lucinda has a lover, but in the beginning he is nameless and seems to be more of a pipe dream and not of any real substance.

I love Kathleen Kent's use of euphemisms and the way she slowly unfolds the details of Lucinda's and Nate's stories in THE OUTCASTS. Some details are shockingly jaw-dropping. Kathleen Kent really brings home the traumatic effect that the Civil War had on everyone, in places and ways that I had not before comprehended.

THE OUTCASTS is a tale full of love, murder, treasure, and discovery. I could not put it down.