TARA KANE

by George Markstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 1978

Tara (a person, not a plantation) comes to the Klondike in 1897 to find her gold-fevered husband Daniel. Prices are high, the weather is bad, lodging is dear and hard to come by, and, all things considered, it's no place for a beautiful innocent--as Tara finds, since she repeatedly gets all her worldly goods ripped off. She does not lose her virtue, however, though she has to use a .22 to protect it on one occasion in the wilderness--and then has to watch her pack of Huskies tear the unfortunate lecher's corpse to shreds before she can drive them three days through the frozen waste, running haft-mad and haft-naked before she reaches safety. She is pursued throughout by the ""King of the Klondike,"" Soapy Smith, a con-man turned gangster turned politician. He loves Tara and gets her out of troubles ranging from catfights to murder trials to earthquakes any number of times--but though she is increasingly drawn to him, despite his megalomania, she cannot forget her young husband Daniel and keeps searching for him. While the Alaskan scenery may appeal to Indian Summer readers, the plot and characters, despite all the Perils of Pauline (and despite the fact that Markstein once wrote a dandy thriller called The Cooler), are distinctly lukewarm.

Pub Date: Aug. 2, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Stein & Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1978

Categories: FICTION