Memphis Reads Archive

Fiction/Westerns

Linda Scott reviews CHILD OF THE DEAD by Don Coldsmith (Doubleday, 1995)

Running Deer, the elder matriarch of a band of the western Great Plains Indians, is grieving the recent death of her husband and despairs of any reason to live. As her people make their journey home from the annual Sun Dance tribal gathering, they encounter the deserted village of another tribe and the remains of its residents, who have succumbed to smallpox plague, which arrived with European settlers. A small girl, sick with the disease, is the only one alive and she is not expected to live. Running Deer sees this situation as an opportunity for a noble death and makes a decision to stay behind with the child, fully expecting that they both would die. Against all odds, she and the girl, Gray Mouse, survive the disease, and their bond of love strengthens them to meet even more of life’s challenges.


Linda Scott, Bartlett Branch Library

Labels: Reviews by Linda Scott, Westerns

Fiction/Western

Darletha Matthews reviews DEADWOOD by Pete Dexter (Random House, 1986)

James "Wild Bill" Hickock and his friend, Charley Utter, join the gold rush to Deadwood, a violent boom town in the Black Hills. Wild Bill spends his days drinking and gambling in saloons filled with star-struck tourists. Wild Bill is the opposite of his legend—quiet in crowds, suffering from a painful disease, and married to performer Agnes Lake.

Another famous visitor to Deadwood is Calamity Jane, who plays the roles of caring nurse to the sick and love-struck nuisance to Bill and Charley. Deadwood is on the outskirts of civilization where respectable people become corrupt and outlaws show glimpses of virtue.

This gritty Western chronicles actual events and famous people from Deadwood history. There is an array of colorful characters which include prostitutes, Chinese workers, and "paper-collar" businessmen. The unexpected humor in the story derives from the folksy voice of the narrator and the clever dialogue. Although this book is not the basis for the HBO series Deadwood, fans of the show will enjoy the novel’s uncompromising portrait of the West.


Darletha Matthews, South Branch Library

Labels: Reviews by Darletha Matthews, Westerns

Fiction/Westerns

Sara Ellen Reid reviews THE MAN FROM SHADOW RIDGE by Brock & Bodie Thoene (Bethany House, 1990)

It was 1861 and Tom Dawson, a rugged individualist and man of high moral character, had become increasingly uncomfortable in his Missouri army regiment, the Marion Rangers. Pro-slavery sentiment had asserted itself and the Rangers had joined the Confederacy. Tom had been grateful when brother Jesse's letter arrived asking him to join Jesse's family in California where they had a homestead. Jesse could not afford a hired hand and Tom's help would be extremely valuable in running the small ranch which ran below the eastern slope of Shadow Ridge Mountain.

The past two years had been good ones; Tom had found a measure of contentment far from the chaos of the Civil War back East. But now word has come that a stagecoach in the area has been robbed and six people have been brutally murdered. Southern sympathizers who were stealing Union gold for the South have been blamed. The peace-loving brothers get embroiled in the war's turmoil that has now extended far to the West. A series of harsh events make the townspeople fearful and the Dawson family is particularly tried through a tragic death and a kidnapping. In the end, Tom draws on his faith and finds the courage to go against a wealthy, influential, but duplicitous town merchant and his gang of thugs.

This is the first in a series called "Saga of the Sierras." The Thoenes are an award-winning writing team whose books are especially notable for their detailed research. The fact that the authors make their home in the Sierra Nevada Mountains adds to the realism with which the book was written.


Sara Ellen Reid, Parkway Village Branch Library

Labels: Reviews by Sara Ellen Reid, Westerns

Labels: Reviews by Heather Lawson, Westerns