UNSPEAKABLE

Styleless and clichÇ-besotted though the works of the queen of Texas melodrama may be, her last novel—1997’s Mardi Gras sleaze extravaganza Fat Tuesday—got a first printing of 500,000 and the nod from two book clubs. Here, convicted killer Carl Herbold escapes from Tucker prison and heads for East Texas. Drifter Jack Sawyer, with whom Herbold has a fatal destiny, has also arrived in East Texas and landed a job at a cattle ranch where deaf widow Anna Corbett and five-year-old son David live with her father-in-law—and where the vile acts of Herbold will be played out. Will Sawyer get “unspeakable” Anna to speak at last? Most Texans who read this will think these pages, with their strong Texas twang singing through, could have dropped from their own mouths. And they did. (Literary Guild main selection; TV satellite tour)