Overview
The dangerous and poignant odyssey of a tenacious young girl who boldly traverses the Texas frontier as she seeks to avenge her mother's death"When I began to read this book its unique voice appealed to me immediately. Elizabeth Crook has written a beautiful novel with wonderful characters." --Robert Duvall "A small-scale masterwork, richly detailed and beautifully rendered." --S. C. Gwynne, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of the Summer Moon Early one morning in the remote Hill Country of Texas a panther attacks a family of homesteaders, mauling a young girl named Samantha and killing her mother, a former slave -- whose final act is to save her daughter's life. Samantha and her half brother, Benjamin, survive, but she is left traumatized, her face horribly scarred. Narrated in Benjamin's beguilingly plainspoken voice, The Which Way Tree is the story of Samantha's relentless determination to stalk and kill the notorious panther and avenge her mother's death. In this quest she and Benjamin, now orphaned, enlist a charismatic Tejano outlaw and a haunted, compassionate preacher with an aging but unstoppable tracking dog. As the members of this unlikely posse hunt the panther, they are in turn pursued by a hapless but sadistic Confederate soldier with a score to settle. In the tradition of the great pursuit narratives, The Which Way Tree is a breathtaking tale of revenge against an implacable and unknowable beast. Yet with the comedic undertones of Benjamin's storytelling, it is also a timeless story full of warmth and humor, and a testament to the enduring love between a sister and brother in an adventure whose legend will last a lifetime.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781549170539
- ISBN-10: 1549170538
- Publisher: Hachette Book Group
- Publish Date: February 2018
- Dimensions: 5.8 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.35 pounds
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Audio: Journey of revenge
The Which Way Tree, Elizabeth Crook’s fifth novel, evocatively narrated by Will Collyer, is an extraordinary adventure yarn set in the Texas hill country in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War. This strange tale of true grit during hard times is told in letters written by 16-year-old Benjamin Shreve to the presiding judge in a case of heinous murder and robbery. Though he hasn’t had much schooling, Benjamin has read Moby Dick (pay heed to that, as he might say), and he writes in a 19th-century, Texas-tinged style that captures both his youthful earnestness and strong sense of duty. It all started years before, when a panther mauled his younger half-sister, Samantha. Her mother, a former slave, was killed while attempting to save her. Like Ahab and his whale, destroying the panther becomes Samantha’s abiding obsession—and possibly everyone’s undoing. The tale is so vividly cinematic that Robert Duvall has already purchased the movie rights.
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Roy Hawkins, a British-American spy working for MI6, was there on June 14, 1940, when the City of Light went dark and the Nazi flag flew atop the Eiffel Tower. Though he desperately wants to stay in France, he’s told to go to New York as part of a new espionage operation the Brits are setting up in Rockefeller Center. That’s for openers in Lawrence Dudley’s action-packed spy thriller, New York Station (Blackstone, 10 hours), read with pizazz and purpose by Christopher Lane. On the trail of a Nazi agent trying to attain U.S. submarine secrets, Roy goes to Saratoga Springs, Florida, a haven for mob-run gambling and the rich and powerful, including a popular rabble-rousing isolationist backed by the Reich. But soon, Roy uncovers a Nazi plot to get rid of Franklin D. Roosevelt by subverting the upcoming presidential election. That this plot sounds eerily familiar to the turmoil playing out in today’s political sphere only makes Dudley’s tale all the more pertinent and thought provoking.
TOP PICK IN AUDIO
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This article was originally published in the April 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.
Audio: Journey of revenge
The Which Way Tree, Elizabeth Crook’s fifth novel, evocatively narrated by Will Collyer, is an extraordinary adventure yarn set in the Texas hill country in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War. This strange tale of true grit during hard times is told in letters written by 16-year-old Benjamin Shreve to the presiding judge in a case of heinous murder and robbery. Though he hasn’t had much schooling, Benjamin has read Moby Dick (pay heed to that, as he might say), and he writes in a 19th-century, Texas-tinged style that captures both his youthful earnestness and strong sense of duty. It all started years before, when a panther mauled his younger half-sister, Samantha. Her mother, a former slave, was killed while attempting to save her. Like Ahab and his whale, destroying the panther becomes Samantha’s abiding obsession—and possibly everyone’s undoing. The tale is so vividly cinematic that Robert Duvall has already purchased the movie rights.
SPIES AND LIES
Roy Hawkins, a British-American spy working for MI6, was there on June 14, 1940, when the City of Light went dark and the Nazi flag flew atop the Eiffel Tower. Though he desperately wants to stay in France, he’s told to go to New York as part of a new espionage operation the Brits are setting up in Rockefeller Center. That’s for openers in Lawrence Dudley’s action-packed spy thriller, New York Station (Blackstone, 10 hours), read with pizazz and purpose by Christopher Lane. On the trail of a Nazi agent trying to attain U.S. submarine secrets, Roy goes to Saratoga Springs, Florida, a haven for mob-run gambling and the rich and powerful, including a popular rabble-rousing isolationist backed by the Reich. But soon, Roy uncovers a Nazi plot to get rid of Franklin D. Roosevelt by subverting the upcoming presidential election. That this plot sounds eerily familiar to the turmoil playing out in today’s political sphere only makes Dudley’s tale all the more pertinent and thought provoking.
TOP PICK IN AUDIO
Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Pharrell, an oddball pair, are the only private investigators working in an out-of-the-way region of the tropical, croc-infested Top End of Australia. They’re investigating the disappearance of a local author who writes superselling, sort-of-Christian, post-apocalyptic novels. It’s a weird and interesting case with clever twists, but it’s Ted and Amanda and their harrowing histories that make Crimson Lake, Candice Fox’s latest atmospheric thriller, so compelling. Before arriving in the boonies, Ted, a former drug squad detective in Sydney, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was accused, but not convicted, of the horrific rape of a 13-year-old girl. Hounded by the press and self-righteous vigilantes, he goes to ground in Crimson Lake, where he meets Amanda, whose troubling history includes spending eight years in prison for the murder of a high school classmate. Euan Morton’s compelling, perfectly paced performance adds depth to this dark, intriguing dissection of how prosecution can morph into persecution, justice can be jettisoned and innocence trampled.
This article was originally published in the April 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.