After Lawson's beautiful wife, Catherine, is kidnapped, he embarks on a search that will take him across the United States, over the Rocky Mountains and into the land of the Navajo.
Catherine will take a terrifying yet rewarding journey with her husband's archenemy.
Blue Eyes goes on a vision quest that will change his life forever.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the characters. Adele has done an excellent job in capturing the dialect, the characters are believable, and she's done superb work in researching the historical setting, geography, and cultures of the time. It rings true in every respect. It has the feel of the famous Western novels of Zane Gray or Louis L'Amour, or the famous Western movies I grew up with. The writing has a natural, easy, storytelling voice to it.
Obviously there are the intentional grammar, spelling, and punctuation choices that are needed for the dialect. For the most part, I found this well done. While the dialect is strong, it wasn't so strong or overdone that it became difficult to read. It was consistent, and it lent 'voice' to the characters in the way that differentiated the dialect between characters. Pete's dialect was the strongest, and that informs his character—a hard-working and savvy, but mostly uneducated, ranch hand. Catherine, at the other extreme, is educated and comes from an educated, more sophisticated family, so her dialect is nearly non-existent. Lawson is somewhere between these two extremes. Then Catherine's brother Joseph has the dialect and cadence of a Native who is just learning, or relearning, English, but again, this wasn't overdone to the point that it either becomes hard to read, unintentionally humorous, or even potentially offensive in a stereotype. It felt direct and natural.
Robb Grindstaff, Fiction Editing
O.K. Cafe, Third and Allen, Tombstone, AZ Tombstone Old West Books, 401 Allen St., Tombstone, AZ Mona Bishop Room, Sierra Vista Library,2600 E. Tacoma St.
Time 8a.m. - 3p.m.
December 27, 2011
Time 10a.m. - 3p.m.
February 11, 2012
Book Fair, Memoirs to Mysteries
Time 10a.m. - 4p.m.