LitReactor

Who Wrote It?

Kathleen Kent, author of The Heretic’s Daughter and The Traitor’s Wife.

Plot in a Box:

A diverse array of outcasts collide in a small Texas town, on the hunt for a pirate’s buried treasure.

Invent a New Title For This Book:

We’re Not As Different As You Think

Read This If You Liked:

Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, Louis L’Amour

Meet the Book’s Leads:

Lucinda Goddard, an “upstairs girl” with epilepsy posing as a schoolteacher, and Officer Nate Cannon, a rookie tin star on his first field assignment.

Said Leads Would Be Portrayed In a Movie By:

Scarlett Johansson and Ethan Hawke, respectively

Setting: Would You Want to Live There?

Although Kent’s prose makes everything from a Texas sunset to a New Orleans bordello sound breathtakingly beautiful, there’s no denying that post-Civil War Texas was not a pleasant place to live.

What Was Your Favorite Sentence?

‘Oklahoma, I’m sure your wife is as faithful as the North Star. From what I’ve been told, you’re not much for farming, but you know horses better than most, and we fight for the same side. But I didn’t spend the past twenty years of my life learning to appreciate the merits of mankind. You’re young. You’ll learn.’ He fit his hat carefully back on his head and said, ‘Church is at nine.’

 

The Verdict:

Read the rest of BH Shepherd's review here.