An enchanting blend of history and fantasy.
A Mexican ranch hand becomes a legend when he gets drawn into a battle with corrupt American landowners, Texas Rangers, and German spies in this historical novel set in the early 20th century.
In 1915, Fabriciano Garcia works on a South Texas ranch on the Rio Grande owned by Victoriano Gonzales and managed by his father-in-law, Casimiro Munoz. When four Texas Rangers approach on horseback, Fabriciano braces for trouble—they are known for their unpredictable violence, especially during a time when tensions between American and Mexican landowners are on the rise. The leader of the pack, Capt. Benjamin Johnson, announces his intention to commandeer the ranch, and when Victoriano protests, they gun him down. Fabriciano intervenes and shoots two of the Rangers dead. He has no choice but to flee across the Rio Grande for safety, leaving behind his wife, Manuela, and his two children, for now he is a fugitive and will surely be hunted down by vengeful Rangers. He seeks solace at the hotel of François LaBorde, a Frenchman and the employer of his brother, Carlos. Fabriciano and François become close friends—they both detest the American robber barons as well as the Mexican president, Venustiano Carranza, who opportunistically plays both sides. Fabriciano not only opposes the Americans and their collaborators by stealing their herds, but he also joins forces with François against German secret agents. The spies are encouraging Mexico to invade the United States, thus keeping America out of World War I, a neglected aspect of modern history astutely explored by Holbrook and Garcia. Fabriciano becomes a near mythical figure known as the Ghost, an indomitable warrior who survives and even financially prospers despite extraordinary odds against him.
With scrupulous care and impressive lucidity, the authors portray the complex political situation in Texas, a tinderbox only made more volatile by the intervention of the Germans. Nonetheless, this is not principally a political novel despite its political elements as well as the inclusion of historical figures like President Woodrow Wilson. Rather, this is closer to a picaresque adventure, one in which Fabriciano transforms from an ordinary man into a legend, especially after his attempt to intercept a payment of gold sent from the Germans to Carranza. Fabriciano’s exploits are as daring as they are implausible—he manages to weather the assaults of German U-boats and torpedoes as well as eluding American fighter planes dropping bombs and a troop of Texas Rangers pursuing him. Of course, this all becomes more than a touch unbelievable, even absurd, and the authors immoderately carry out his apotheosis. As François puts it, “The Ghost is going to disappear into thin air without being caught by the authorities. And Fabriciano Garcia shall be spoken of frequently as the man that became invisible and dissipated like fog in the morning sun, never killed or captured and having stolen a treasure of immense wealth.” But whether or not the authors intended it, the combination of rigorously documented history and flights of imaginative fancy makes for a compelling read, the former a genuine source of edification and the latter of lighthearted entertainment. In the final analysis, Fabriciano’s unlikely journey remains an enjoyable one for readers.
An enchanting blend of history and fantasy.Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 9798361883189
Page Count: 354
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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