This lively series opener reveals why Wild West tales continue to entertain.
A Western adventure explores the danger and excitement of the stagecoach era.
In this latest foray into the Old West from Harris (A Novel Journey, 2019, etc.), readers are introduced to colorful driver Stagecoach Willy and his taciturn shotgun messenger, Ten. The two are dragged down from their mountaintop retirement cabin for a special assignment. They have to carry $250,000 in cash and gold and plans for a new type of sawmill from Portland, Oregon, to Sacramento. There is a wrinkle to which the old partners must agree. The plans are locked in a briefcase held by Kate Warren, a beautiful Pinkerton agent. To put Willy’s and Ten’s minds at ease, Kate lists her credentials, adding: “I can’t pee standing up, but I can do just about everything else you boys can do.” Kate quickly proves herself, even stopping the first attempt to rob the partners of their cargo. The group even adds a passenger, Sydney, a dog that was being mistreated at one stop. The quartet settles into the challenging routine of rolling from stop to stop over often treacherous roads, looking out for trouble. The four also bond as a result of their exhilarating exploits. In this first installment of a series, Harris deftly summons the spirits of the old pulps for a new generation. Long before armored cars, stagecoaches transported important cargo. The author’s intrepid odd couple have a history of success: The two men never lost a load during their time together. The gregarious Willy always has a story to tell, and Ten, too often his friend’s audience of one, longs for the quiet of his cabin. While this pair isn’t terribly nuanced, Kate proves a deeper character, being orphaned and ending up the head of her family at too young an age. The author’s thorough research is apparent in his vivid descriptions of the stagecoach life. What results is an invigorating novella with the feel of a fast-paced movie serial from yesteryear, which will leave readers pondering what will happen next to the heroes.
This lively series opener reveals why Wild West tales continue to entertain.Pub Date: June 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-07-205054-4
Page Count: 196
Publisher: Dusty Saddle Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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