“Children of the Storm,” by Ariana Harner and Clark Secrest (Fulcrum): It’s been nearly 100 years since five Eastern Colorado children died in a stalled school bus during a freak blizzard. The survivors are long gone, and the story is now ingrained in Colorado history, thanks in part to the dogged research of Ariana Harner and Clark Secrest.

“Children of the Storm” was published in 1999. Harner and Secrest interviewed the remaining survivors. That research served to dispel myths and establish the facts of the tragedy. Without those interviews, the truth might have been lost.

That March day in 1931 started out balmy in Southeastern Colorado, but by the time the Pleasant Hill bus reached the school, it was snowing hard. Bus driver Carl Miller begged the teachers to let the students wait out the storm in the schoolhouse, but they refused. By the time Miller reached the edge of the schoolyard, he couldn’t see beyond his radiator cap. The bus soon stalled, and the children faced a horrendous 33-hour wait to be rescued. Five students (and the bus driver, who’d gone for help) died, and the others were near death when they were rescued.

The tragedy might have remained a local story, if not for promotion-minded F.G. Bonfils, publisher of The Denver Post. He sent a plane filled with supplies (and reporters) to Pleasant Hill and later hosted the surviving kids at the Brown Palace for a week of publicity. He singled out one boy, Bryan Untiedt, to be the hero. The Post said Untiedt gave his clothing to other kids to keep warm and was down to his underwear when rescued.

But Untiedt was no more a hero than the other children, Harner and Secrest point out in this newly reprinted book. If he’d been wearing only underwear, he’d have frozen to death. That’s one of the myths the authors put to rest.

“Children of the Storm” is a Colorado treasure, and it’s nice to see that it’s once again available to readers.

“Without Exception,” by Pam Houston (Torrey House Press): Author Pam Houston isn’t exactly a poster child for the pro-choice movement. She didn’t almost die in an ectopic pregnancy, for instance. She had three abortions by choice. But while she may not elicit sympathy, she represents the one in three American women (85 percent of them unmarried) who will have an abortion by the time they’re 45.

And despite what the anti-abortion folks claim, 95 percent of those women are grateful later on that they had the procedure.

Houston is known for her books about the West, many centered around her ranch in Creede. She usually saves her political points for the environment. “Without Exception” is a highly personal account of abortion in America, a plea for politicians to keep their hands off women’s rights. She quotes one pro-choice man saying anti-abortion politicians “don’t care about babies whatsoever. This is about controlling women, because they fear the power women have.”

Houston points out that some abortion bans that politicians are writing today are extreme. In Wyoming, for instance, the total abortion ban might one day be “turned around to prevent them from giving abortions to their cattle.”

In what must be a painful account to write, Houston delves into the dark places in her life — her father’s savage incest, for instance, which lasted from age 4 to 20. And she’s unapologetic about the abortions. She was not cut out for motherhood. “I never believed the people who told me I needed a child to be fulfilled,” she writes.

She writes to those who’ve gone through the procedure: “My most fervent hope is that by compiling this information and telling you as much truth as I know about myself … I might help release you from your shame, your fear, your self-imposed bondage. I might help you to show yourself mercy. I might help you feel empowered. And free.”

“Shades of Mercy,” by Bruce Borgos (Minotaur Books): When a high-tech, remote-controlled military aircraft suddenly goes berserk and lands on a Nevada rancher’s prize bull, Sheriff Porter Beck knows he’s got trouble. He quickly identifies a brilliant juvenile detention inmate, Mercy Vaughan, 16, as the culprit. Mercy, who is of Chinese origin but raised American, is a good friend of the rancher’s daughter.

Mercy disappears, and Beck discovers he’s not the only one hunting her. A government security officer and a Chinese secret agent are both on her trail and want to abduct her. Mercy is in hiding, but she’s still busy, apparently sending a second RC aircraft into a truckload of cattle and a third at Beck’s truck, nearly killing him.

Meanwhile, Beck’s territory is being flooded with fentanyl. A high school friend died of a drug overdose, so Beck is anxious to find the man’s supplier. He suspects the rancher, another high school buddy, is working with a Mexican drug cartel.

It’s hard to tell who the bad guy is in this high-tech mystery, set in the remote Nevada desert. There’s plenty of excitement, with lots of twists and turns. “Shades of Mercy” is a corking good mystery.

Sandra Dallas is a Denver-based author and book reviewer.