THE BURIAL.

THE BURIAL by COURTNEY COLLINS.

BACK COVER BLURB: A woman has done an unspeakable thing ...

It is 1921. In a mountain-locked valley, amid squalls of driving rain, Jessie is on the run.

Born wild and brave, by twenty-six she has already lived life as a circus rider, cattle rustler and convict. But on this fateful night she is just a woman trying to survive.

She mounts her horse and points him towards the highest mountain in sight. Soon bands of men will crash through the bushland desperate to claim the reward on her head. And in their wake will be two more men, one her lover, the other the law, both uncertain if they should save her or themselves. 

FIRST SENTENCE {Prelude To Death}: Who hasn't heard of Harry Houdini.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 86}: Are you black? said the girl, examining him. We don't serve blacks.

Jack Brown tried to keep his cool. Where's the madam?

She's off crook. You look black but you've got blue eyes, said the girl.

And what colour do you think I am inside? said Jack Brown.

The girl looked confused. She did not answer. 

SOURCE: A reading group read.

MY THOUGHTS: Reading the disclaimer, 'This is a work of fiction - inspired by art, music, literature and the landscape as much as the life and times of Jessie Hickman herself', I had to wonder if the Jessie of our story was in any way connected to this Jessie Hickman.

Aha. Set in the Australian outback in the nineteen twenties and inspired by the life of one Elizabeth Jessie Hickman, The Burial (a debut novel which is also published as The Untold) is indeed a novel which re-imagines certain aspects of her life.

Perhaps more to do with the style of writing than the story (or what I perceived as a lack of story) itself. For me the only redeeming feature about The Burial was the picturesque descriptions of the outback.

Narrated by Jessie's dead child, a child, murdered by his mother, who in the dirt discovered they had eyes to see and ears to hear, that they could see and hear beyond logical distance and time. Doubtlessly something that some readers will find quirky. Personally I found it a little disconcerting and not something that worked well.

With no speech marks (my English teacher would have been apoplectic), any speech was denoted by the use of italics. Once again, something some readers will not mind but I found annoying. Annoying and yet oddly enough not nearly as annoying as that the character Jack Brown (despite there being no other Jack in the story) was always referred to as Jack Brown rather than just Jack.

With two protagonists, Jessie herself and Jack (or should I make that Jack Brown?), the events shifting between Jessie's past and present as the story unfolds, sadly I was left feeling oddly disconnected with not only the events but, worse still, the very characters themselves.

A 'Western' with a difference if you will. The Burial could have been a wonderfully poignant tale of the brutality of one woman's life in 1920's Australia and yet when all is said and done I'm afraid it simply wasn't a novel to my taste.

LAST STAND AT LITTLE CREEK.

LAST STAND AT LITTLE CREEK by CHRISTOPHER CAIN.

BACK COVER BLURB: The aging town marshall John Walker is drawn from his comfortable near retirement in a small town in rural Wyoming to try and solve a shocking murder. Racing against time to prevent a border dispute, between two local cattle barons, from turning into a full blown range war, he attempts to tread the grey line between peace keeper and law enforcer.

Set in 1880, this powerfully gripping tale of love, family and rivalry will drag you into the bleak reality of the 'wild' West. Brilliantly interweaving history and adventure to create new, believable historical fiction. 

FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter 1}: He rides slowly towards the town, quiet, purposeful, menacing, eyes never still as he scans his surroundings.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 136}: He looks across the slopping mud, dispassionately watching as the town's run off ditch overflows, turning the main street into a miniature river. Something overrides his morose contemplation, a sound from behind, unthinkingly he spins and crouches, one hand reaching for his pistol.

MY THOUGHTS: A debut novel. Some way removed from the 'Cowboys and Indians' so loved by my late granddad and yet not enough so that it was totally unrecognisable. 

Feeling more authentic than the 'Westerns' of old. Yes, there is more of a storyline, the characters are more defined, the author going some way to get away from the image of two professional gunslingers facing each other down a dusty 'street', of the bar fight in which you are guaranteed some cowboy or other will come sailing through the doors of a saloon. And yet still I feel there is no way of getting past the fact that here is a story that, despite the authors efforts, will probably appeal more to men than women.

Powerfully descriptive, graphically violent but not what I thought of as overly gratuitous. The author does a great job in setting the scene, painting a vividly gritty picture in which an ageing marshal, John Walker, a veteran of a 'Indian war' some fifteen years past, finds himself the centre of a feud between landowners, the Mayweather and Baxter families. A feud made all the more complex by the fact that Walker is betrothed to Mayweather daughter, Belle.

My favourite aspect of the novel, and, in my opinion, the main thing to set it apart from many others of its genre, I found myself really liking Belle. Mentally strong, in many ways physically tough and yet at the same time merely grateful that in Walker, a man 'who may not beat her', she had 'at least chosen someone who is honourable and hard working'. Its however sad to say that without exception the rest of the female characters (of whom there aren't many), though perhaps of their time and place, weren't so well written.

And therein lies my difficulty. Ultimately a novel I enjoyed much more than I thought I would but, far stronger on plot than characterisation, I personally felt that it could have benefited from being that much longer, the characters that bit more padded out. 

Still, ending, if not exactly on a cliff-hanger, wide-open to a sequel, I'm hoping we hear more of Christopher Cain.

THE ROAD TO RECKONING.

THE ROAD TO RECKONING by ROBERT LAUTNER.

SOURCE: A GoodReads win. An uncorrected Proof copy, whilst Amazon details as always are available by clicking on the book title I have been asked not to quote directly from the book.

MY THOUGHTS: Though narrated by his adult self, the novel, set in 1930's America, is in fact the  childhood story of Thomas Walker.

A debut novel described as a 'Western-style adventure' which will 'enthral fans of Cold Mountain and True Grit'. Not having read many 'Westerns' (my main experience of the genre being the 1950's 'Cowboys and Indians' novels read by my grandfather and father in law) and never having seen either of these films I wasn't sure just what exactly to expect.

Whilst this had everything commonly associated with the 'Western' (dust, horses, camp fires, disused mines, stores that sell pretty much everything, guns - much of the story revolves around the newly invented Colt revolver) it was so, so much more.

Beautifully written. The Appalachian frontier towns with all their poverty, violence and religious fervour were wonderfully described. The details of twelve year old Thomas' journey as he travels through the open plains of America to his New York home exceptional. The Road To Reckoning is a real coming of age story with a big heart.

Copyright: Tracy Terry @ Pen and Paper. All original content on http://pettywitter.blogspot.co.uk/ is created by the website owner, including but not limited to text, design, code, images, photographs and videos are considered to be the Intellectual Property of the website owner, whether copyrighted or not, and are protected by DMCA Protection Services using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Title 17 Chapter 512 (c)(3). Reproduction or re-publication of this content is prohibited without permission. In addition I would also urge that if you are reading this on any other page you contact the original blog owner/reviewer.

A LAWMAN'S CHRISTMAS.

The second book read for ..... 

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A LAWMAN'S CHRISTMAS by LINDA LAEL MILLER.

(Slight spoiler included below...... Highlight text if you wish to view)

The sudden death of the town marshal leaves Blue River, Texas, without a lawman ..... and twenty-five-year-old Dara Rose  Nolan without a husband. As winter approaches and her meagre seamstress income dwindles, she has three options. Yet she won't give up her two young daughters, refuses to join the fallen women of the Bitter Gulch Saloon and can't fathom condemning herself to another loveless marriage. Unfortunately she must decide - soon - because there's a new marshal in town, and she's living under his roof.

With the heart of a cowboy, Clay McKettrick plans to start a ranch and finally settle down. He isn't interested in uprooting Dara Rose and her children, but, he is interested in giving her protection, friendship - and passion. And when they say 'I do' to a marriage of convenience, the temporary lawman's Christmas wish is to make Dara Rose his permanent wife.

..... Inner front cover.

FIRST SENTENCE (Chapter 1): If the spark-throwing screech of iron-on-iron hadn't wrenched Clay McKettrick out of his uneasy sleep, the train's lurching stop - which nearly pitched him onto the facing seat - would surely have done the trick.

MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 14): "My papa was the marshal a while back," she informed Clay matter-of-factly, "but then he died in the arms of a misguided woman in the room above the Bitter Gulch Saloon and left us high and dry."

MY THOUGHTS: Described as a Western, a historical romance AND, perhaps most accurately, as a 'ROMCOW' (a romantic cowboy) this is the first time I've ever read anything of this kind ..... my thanks to Nadia for the giveaway in which I won it, you can see her review HERE.

An albeit largely unbelievable read, this is nevertheless a nice enough cosy and charming story with lots of snow scenes. In many ways the  perfect seasonal read, its just that apart from the humour and matter-of-fact ways of one character (Edrina) and that this is Christmas without all of the commercialism there was nothing about the book that particularly spoke to me.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh in my judgement as whereas there was nothing outstandingly good about A Lawman's Christmas nor was there anything glaringly bad about it - apart from the nauseating, cringeworthy, sexually fuelled epilogue that is.

Glad that I satisfied my curiosity about this genre, I'm not too sure that I'll be revisiting the books of Linda Lael Miller any time soon though.

KEEP IT OR NOT?: I'll be passing this one on.

THE CASE OF THE GOOD-LOOKING CORPSE.

Thanks to Vivienne over at SERENDIPITY REVIEWS I was lucky enough to win a copy of .........

THE CASE OF THE GOOD-LOOKING CORPSE by CAROLINE LAWRENCE.

My name is P.K. Pinkerton & I am a Private Eye operating out of Virginia City.

At the moment I am in Jail in the shadow of a hangman's noose. 
It is all because I tried to solve the biggest mystery here in Nevada Territory & protect a girl who witnessed a terrible crime.

If I write an account of what happened, then maybe I can convince the jury not to hang me by the neck until I am dead.
....... Inner front cover.

FIRST SENTENCE (Ledger Street 1): My name is P.K. Pinkerton & I am a Private Eye operating out of Virginia City, Nevada Territory.

MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 184): And just now I had stopped two desperados from shooting me by flinging a nearly full spittoon at them.

MY THOUGHTS: Billed as a book for children, of what age range I can only hazard a guess (one site puts it as low as ages 5 to 9) though I'm pretty sure it must be for older children children aged 11+.

I don't know perhaps I'm out of touch as to just what is suitable reading material for this age range or perhaps I'm just shying away from them reading unpleasant details BUT there were several elements to this particular novel that concerned me ..... various gruesome descriptions, men of fairly doubtful morals, the mention of prostitutes and what seemed like the continuous mention/pen and ink images of guns to name but a few.

Reading it as an adult though ...... I loved the maps and the little sketches that headed each chapter and whilst I thought the plot was lacking a certain something, I thought the characters were fairly well written, the fact that the main character, P.K., was a 'half Indian' commendable, the fact that he had so many obsessions and foibles interesting.

What really annoyed me however was the author's constant use '&' instead of the word 'and'. Trendy? Making a statement? I don't know BUT I think that in the battle for good grammar, punctuation and spelling the author did no favours to children in overusing what I consider a sloppy alternative.

The second book in a series from an acclaimed author, though I haven't read the first instalment myself I know many consider this, if anything, a better read.

KEEP IT OR NOT?: Sadly not one for the shelves.