An original work of high distinction indeed: as fine a historical novel as any within recent memory, and far and away...
A full-dress fictionalization of the historic siege remembered as "the Texas holy of holies," from the veteran Texas Monthly contributor and novelist (Jacob's Well, 1984, etc.).
Harrigan's obviously fully researched reconstruction of the events of 1836, when a band of "Texians" determined to free "their" territory from Mexican control succumbed after a 13-day ordeal to the much larger Mexican Army, skillfully mingles together well-known historical figures with vividly realized fictional characters. Prominent among the latter are Terrell Mott, a 91-year-old survivor honored at ceremonies marking the siege's 75th anniversary in 1911, in the novel's moving prologue and epilogue; Terrell's mother, widowed Mary Mott, who courageously enters the very epicenter of the struggle, to be reconciled, and, if necessary, die with her loved ones; and Edmund McGowan, an itinerant botanist (hoping to complete his authoritative Flora Texana) for whom the Texas war of liberation becomes a transformative challenge to his lifelong suppression of his emotions and belief "in the governing majesty of the mind." Hot-blooded William Travis, infamous "knife-fighter" Jim Bowie, Congressman David Crockett from Tennessee, and their supposed confederate Sam Houston (whose troops arrive too late to avert the slaughter) are all memorably delineated, as are Mexico's "Presidente" General Santa Anna and two of his officers (both fictional) who grow to both maturity and disillusionment during the long campaign. Harrigan builds slowly and surely toward the story’s inevitable, impressive climax, examining in thrilling detail his several protagonists' quests for both freedom and fulfillment, foreshadowing deftly (for example, in a startling description of a tame parrot being swept up into the sky by a marauding hawk), and making us care deeply about the buttoned-up, self-despising Edmund and the heroic, very human woman who he knows in his heart is part of him.
An original work of high distinction indeed: as fine a historical novel as any within recent memory, and far and away Harrigan's best book yet. (First printing of 100,000; Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection/Quality Paperback Book Club selection)Pub Date: March 6, 2000
ISBN: 0-679-44717-2
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2000
Thriller fans will find so much space devoted to Gia and Jake’s sexual acrobatics that little time is left for the plot to...
A small Tennessee mountain town is awash in sex and scandal in Belle’s first novel.
Gia Andrews, a disaster relief worker, is also a convicted murderer’s daughter. Her father, Ray, was convicted of killing his wife and Gia’s stepmother, Ella Mae, and sentenced to life in prison. But Ray is dying, and prison officials are releasing him on compassionate grounds; Gia’s uncle Cal, a prominent lawyer, has recruited her to return home from Kenya to care for her dad in his home in Rogersville. Despite the fact that she hasn’t seen her father since she left many years ago, she returns, believing her brother, Bo, and sister, Lexi, will help her, but she finds that neither wants anything to do with their father. Her nearest allies turn out to be the home-care worker Uncle Cal has hired, Fannie, and the new man she meets, a bar-and-grill owner named Jake. When Gia meets a law professor planning to write a book about wrongful convictions, he tells her he believes Ray didn’t kill Ella Mae and that Cal, who was Ray’s attorney, didn’t mount much of a defense. After looking into these allegations, Gia discovers her stepmother had an affair with another man and wonders whether her father could be innocent after all. While trying to unravel the mystery of who really killed Ella Mae, things heat up between Gia and Jake, and suddenly the mystery takes a whole new direction. Belle’s a smooth writer whose characters are vibrant and truly reflect the area where the novel is set, but the plot—while clever—takes a back seat to Gia’s and Ella Mae’s separate, but equally steamy, sexual exploits.
Thriller fans will find so much space devoted to Gia and Jake’s sexual acrobatics that little time is left for the plot to develop.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1722-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
The late (d. 1988), leathery, awesomely unstoppable (over 100 books still in print) L’Amour, still producing fluently from his grave (End of the Drive, 1997), offers one more gathering of unpublished tales, proving again that great writing laughs at death. Showing sheer contempt for slow openings, L’Amour’s seven newly discovered short stories offer some breath-catching first paragraphs echoing with the cold steel click of a Colt .45 hammer being cocked. The lead story, “The Man from Utah,” polishes L’Amour’s walnut prose to its glossiest grain. Bearing a fearsome reputation as a gunfighter, Marshall Utah Blaine arrives in Squaw Creek to investigate 14 recent murders (three were marshals) by a cunning bandit masquerading as an upright citizen. By a process of deduction, the shrewd Blaine narrows his suspects down until he has the killer. “Here Ends the Trail” opens with a High L’Amouresque Miltonic Inversion: “Cold was the night and bitter the wind and brutal the trail behind. Hunched in the saddle, I growled at the dark and peered through the blinding rain. The agony of my wound was a white-hot flame from the bullet of Korry Gleason.” This builds to an explosive climax that mixes vengeance with great-heartedness. “Battle at Burnt Camp,” “Ironwood Station” and “The Man from the Dead Hills” all live up to the melodrama of their blue-steel titles. “Strawhouse Trail” opens memorably with the line: “He looked through his field glasses into the eyes of a dying man.” And never lets up. The title novella tells of Lona Markham’s unwilling engagement to six-foot-five, 250-pound, harsh-lipped Frank Mailer, who has “blue, slightly glassy eyes.” Will Lance Kilkenny, the mysterious Black Rider, save her from indestructible Mailer? Stinging stories of powerful men against landscapes you can strike a match on.
Pub Date: May 11, 1998
ISBN: 0-553-10833-6
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1998
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