A lighthearted, engaging novel that fits squarely into the tradition of Westerns yet finds its own path to a more modern...
Outlaws are defeated and cowboys find true love in this third book in Spalsbury’s (The Hunted Return, 2012, etc.) Western series.
Spalsbury returns to 19th-century Montana for this story of classic Old West adventure with a dash of romance. Kay Cannon is on her way from New York to Montana as a mail-order bride for a cowboy named Sinful when she realizes two men are after her, looking to steal something they believe she possesses. She makes her way across the country, evading her pursuers, and lands in the company of Sinful’s colleague Doc Whitfield, just back from studying medicine in France. Whitfield saves Kay from the men chasing her—and from a number of other outlaws as well—and delivers her safely to Elk Forks, Montana, where she settles in among the characters who populate the town. When Kay is kidnapped by her pursuers, Doc, Sinful, Red, Big John and the sheriff ride through the mountains to save her. The strong cast of supporting characters, from gambler and revenge-seeker Mary Beth to Mrs. Bale—housekeeper, sharpshooter, and honorary grandmother—keeps the story vibrant, while the many plot threads eventually come together in a satisfying resolution. The long rides, gun-toting dames, quick draws and scruffy miners are all stock elements of Western fiction, but Spalsbury succeeds in blending them into a more modern portrait of the familiar tropes. These tough cowboys aren’t afraid to show their tears, for instance, and several members of the Blackfoot tribe also act as supporting characters. Although stereotypes occasionally arise, the author manages a balanced, honest approach to a violent period in American history. Readers unfamiliar with the previous books in the series may find themselves lost at times, but on the whole, Spalsbury is effective at bringing in the necessary back story without overwhelming the reader.
A lighthearted, engaging novel that fits squarely into the tradition of Westerns yet finds its own path to a more modern audience.Pub Date: March 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-1495231445
Page Count: 306
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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