Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Laramie Awards

  • BICKER and the SOOLIVANS by Jenna Hestekin – American Civil War Era, Historical & Heartwarming Romance, Family Drama

    BICKER and the SOOLIVANS by Jenna Hestekin – American Civil War Era, Historical & Heartwarming Romance, Family Drama

    The Soolivan family is split apart by the Civil War, but when the ugly side of fate intervenes, a silver lining appears to bring a broken family back together again. While Andy Soolivan is convalescing in the hospital with his new friend, Bicker, he receives news that his uncles have all been killed. In a letter explaining the details, August Soolivan urges his son Andy to come home. The family has suffered enough.

    As the Soolivan family comes back together, a one-armed Bicker arrives like a lost pup looking for a home. He is welcomed into a family that values togetherness above all else. Penelope, the oldest daughter, catches his eye. The only problem is Penelope. She’s hiding the fact that she is engaged to her beau, who is still fighting in the war. She agonizes, though, because he hasn’t written in weeks. But she isn’t the only daughter in the family with secrets to keep. Will fate allow the Soolivan family to find peace when the war has taken so much from them, and will the emerging feelings between Penelope and Bicker be allowed to flourish? Fate and family are at the heart of Bicker and the Soolivans, and everyone from the casual reader to the critic will feel their heart warmed throughout this authentic feel-good story.

    Hestekin’s greatest strength is her ability to create well-developed, engaging characters that fuel a wonderfully character-driven story. The majority of the novel takes place at the Soolivan home and in the nearby small town of Alma, Wisconsin. The characters drive a gripping tale of a family coming together to heal from the losses of a devastating war and the splitting apart again to follow love’s new beginnings.

    Bicker and the Soolivans will sweep you off your feet, make you forget about the current state of world affairs, and fall in love with the antics of a midwestern family in Civil War-era America.

    Jenna Hestekin’s Bicker and the Soolivans earned Semi-Finalist status in the CIBAs 2018 for American Western Fiction, the LARAMIE Awards.

     

     

    **You can purchase a copy of Bicker and the Soolivans directly from the author’s website, by clicking here.

  • DEATH in the BLACK PATCH by Bruce Wilson – Historical Fiction, Tragic Plays, Family Saga

    DEATH in the BLACK PATCH by Bruce Wilson – Historical Fiction, Tragic Plays, Family Saga

    Drawing on fact, fable and inherited lore, author Bruce Wilson has created an imaginative, at times unsettling view of upheaval in southern American history and its effects on local culture, economy and family ties.

    With a large brood to care for, Wes Wilson grows tobacco in a region known as the Dark Patch, a cluster of counties in Kentucky and Tennessee. Their way of life suddenly comes under threat when the greedy reach of the newly burgeoning American Tobacco Company seeks a monopoly on the crop.

    In a powerful pushback, zealous local farmers form an Association sworn to combat ATC’s grip on their livelihood. To join the Association, or to ally with ATC, becomes Wes’s obsessive dilemma. Day by day he calls on his brother, cousin, and friends to see which way they are tending. Night by night he and his son Anthie keep vigil with firearms, lest their property becomes one of the targets of the Association, which menaces, even destroys, farms whose owners, like Wes, are still uncommitted in their loyalties. Wes’s steadfast wife Zora carries on the ceaseless round of women’s tasks, worrying and praying as she sees Wes more likely to take comfort from whiskey than from the Lord. The situation grows daily more perilous until Wes realizes that someone he believed he could trust with his secrets has turned traitor, and hell finally breaks loose.

    Author Wilson, a History Teacher by trade, has pieced his novel together from tales told by his father and a few snippets of evidence detailing his forebears’ involvement in what became known as the Black Patch Tobacco Wars of 1904-1909. Wilson’s settings and dialog are well rooted in the time and region. His ability to delve into the minds of his characters is a notable strength.

    Wes is introspective but gutsy—willing to step outside the comfort of his culture to examine all sides of the questions he faces while defending his homestead and family at any cost. Zora is the long-suffering partner who knows her husband as both a hard-drinking man with a deep well of anger and a hero who will put himself at risk to maintain his responsibilities. Their oldest boy, Anthie, is in love, and, seeking more time to pursue romance, often resents his father’s domination, while stolidly obeying him. Others add to the suspenseful plot creating depth and intrigue that will likely thrill readers.

    Wilson’s Death in the Black Patch is historical fiction at its best, melding a little- known patch of the big American picture with an exploration of one man’s willingness to fight corruption, destruction, and greed with the few weapons at his disposal—weapons that include a dogged determination to do what is right.

    Death in the Black Patch by Bruce Wilson won 1st Place in the 2017 CIBAs for American Western Fiction, the Laramie Awards.

     

     

  • HOUR GLASS by Michelle Rene – Coming of Age, Western Fiction, Tragic Drama/Plays

    HOUR GLASS by Michelle Rene – Coming of Age, Western Fiction, Tragic Drama/Plays

    Hour Glass by Michelle Rene is the story of many lives, told through the lens of the young protagonist, Jimmy Glass. In non-linear fashion, Rene begins her story toward the end, when Jimmy and the infamous Calamity Jane once again cross paths. From there the story moves backward—to recount past events and the ways multiple lives are forever entangled. Hour Glass is a novel of strength, sadness, and perseverance.

    Jimmy Glass’s father is dying of smallpox. With no options or way to help him at their homestead, Jimmy takes his dad and his younger sister Flower into the closest town—Dead Wood, South Dakota. A mining town is an unforgiving place, but Jimmy and his younger sister are quickly taken in by none other than Calamity Jane herself and a madam named Dora Duffran. The two siblings quickly find a home in the brothel and await news of their father’s health.

    As their father’s life teeters on the edge, Jimmy’s dreams are full of visitations by his deceased Lakota stepmother Without Cage. She takes Jimmy to various times in their lives to show him things he needs to see and things he needs to remember.

    Hour Glass is a novel driven by a complex cast of characters. There’s Calamity Jane, a belligerent drunkard with a kind heart. Jimmy Glass, a young boy with the burdens of manhood pushed on him far too early. Dora Duffran, the madam with a heart of gold and a spine of steel. Without Cage is seen only through memories, but her unbreakable spirit remains as strong as ever, and her character floats through the novel as any other earthly bound character with whom Rene gifts us.

    Then there’s Flower Glass, Jimmy’s younger sister, a girl who many think of as peculiar for her anti-social behavior. She’s taciturn and reserved, dislikes loud noises and being touched, and appears not to pay any attention to what’s going on around her. Jane, however, seems to effortlessly bring Flower, or Hour as she comes to be known, out of her shell when others cannot.

    This historical fiction manages to tell the story of many lives through only one character’s voice. Readers will find a sentimental novel that does an impressive job of recounting the meaningful ways in which lives can intersect, however briefly, and cause changes that will last forever.

    Hour Glass by Michelle Rene won the 2017 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Overall Grand Prize!

     

  • AWAY at WAR: A CIVIL WAR STORY of the FAMILY LEFT BEHIND by Nick K. Adams – Historical/Bibiography, Family Saga, Civil War

    AWAY at WAR: A CIVIL WAR STORY of the FAMILY LEFT BEHIND by Nick K. Adams – Historical/Bibiography, Family Saga, Civil War

    In 1861, like so many other American men, David Brainard Griffen took leave of his family and enlisted in the army, volunteering as a soldier for the Union. Also like so many other American men, he hoped he’d be home in a few months, that this Civil War would soon be over, and he’d be reunited with his wife, Minerva, his daughters, Alice, seven-years-old, Ida May, five-years-old, and his infant son, Edgar Lincoln. To minimize the pain of separation from his family, he wrote them letters from the field of battle, more than 100 accounts of what he was doing and witnessing as a 2nd Minnesota Volunteer. While the book is one of historic fiction, the letters are genuine, and the characters are based on actual people. The author of this fine account, Nick K. Adams, is the great-great-grandson of Corporal David Brainard Griffen.

    As compelling as the Corporal’s letters are, the mainstay of this book is about those left behind on the Minnesota prairie. In the introduction, Adams notes, “I invite you, dear reader, into the lives of this family who represent the high personal cost that waging war – for whatever cause, good or evil, inevitably produces.”  In this manner, the reader spends time with a family doing the best it can while the head of the household is away.

    One feels like an invisible member of the clan while watching Minerva and her children go about their ordinary, but in many ways, extraordinary lives. Their days are made up of chores. They care for chickens and livestock, barter eggs in the nearby town of Alba for fruit, shoes, and fabric. They make candles out of beeswax and tallow and plant crops to harvest. Livestock are slaughtered. Minerva teaches her daughters to make cheese, a skill she learned during her girlhood in Vermont. They visit with family members who live in the area, enjoy spring and summer days and bundle warmly for the frigid Minnesota winters. Alice attends school and, eventually, Ida May does as well. Edgar Lincoln graduates from baby clothes to his first set of overalls.

    It’s the minutiae of life, the everyday details that build and hold this family, and every family, together. But the reminder of the Civil War is always there. Alice uses a game of checkers to explain warfare to her little sister, and the family gathers to read and reread letters from a husband and a father they miss dearly. They write to him, as well, letting him know how they are coping in his absence. And, of course, there is the added tension of not knowing how long the war will last and whether Brainard will be among the fortunate men to make it home.

    Like the best young adult novels, this book draws a universal audience.  Every reader will feel enriched reading this vivid, charming, and poignant account of farm life in the mid-19th century amidst the backdrop of the Civil War. In addition to an account of family life, one learns much about practical matters in a rural, historic setting.

    Teachers who use Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books in their curriculums will want to add Away at War: A Civil War Story of the Family Left Behind to their lesson plans. There’s a connection between the authors; Alice Griffen married Laura Ingalls Wilder’s cousin. For those interested in simply reading Brainard Griffen’s letters, Adams published them as a collection in an earlier work, My Dear Wife and Children:  Civil War Letters from a 2nd Minnesota Volunteer.  Put in the context in this lovely novel, however, the letters are a reminder of what was happening in these lives when pen wasn’t put to paper, when a mother and her children had to do whatever was necessary to get through the day and rest for the coming one. This book is both simple and profound, a reminder of a time and place during a tumultuous time in American history.

    Away at War: A Civil War Story of the Family Left Behind won 1st Place in the 2017 CIBA competitions for unique stories of the United States, the Laramie Awards.

    My Dear Wife and Children: Civil War Letters from a 2nd Minnesota Volunteer won Mr. Adams 1st Place in the 2016 CIBA competitions for Memoir, the Journey Awards.

     

     

     

     

  • The BLACKBIRD by Kristy McCaffrey – Western, Historical, Romance

    The BLACKBIRD by Kristy McCaffrey – Western, Historical, Romance

    An historical sensual romance set in the rustic Arizona territory of the late 1800s, the fourth in the Kristy McCaffrey’s Winds of the West series, The Blackbird hits the mark.   It brings together two tortured souls who also have deep insights and gifts that may help them find their way to each other.

    Tess Carlisle is a spirited but wounded young woman who suffered an assault by one of the men in her father’s gang that left her leg wounded and her soul scarred. Tess’s life was already tough when she began to ride with her father and his band of bounty hunters. She lived with her alcoholic mother and her beloved Abuela (grandmother) until the two older women died in a house fire, brought on by her mother’s depression and drinking. Tess has the ability to tell stories, a gift she learned from her grandmother and Tess knows this ability ties her spirit to the greater world. She sends word to Cale Walker, a man who used to ride with her bounty hunter father, to help her find Hank Carlisle, to find out answers to why her papa would allow one of his men to assault her and then abandon her.

    Cale Walker joined Hank with his band of bounty hunters after a stint in the Army until he had a falling out with Hank over the ruthlessness of some of the other members “methods.”  On his way from leaving Hank, Cale was attacked by a mountain lion and rescued by an Apache tribe, such as those that Hank and Cale hunted. During Cale’s time with a tribe of the Nednai, he learned their healing ways and became a di-yan (medicine man). Cale also has unresolved issues with Hank.

    Cale and Tess are introduced to each other at the very beginning of the novel, when Cale arrives at Tom and Mary Simms’ home, having been summoned there by a letter from his half-sister, who also is Mary’s half-sister. Yes, there are a lot of names that are mentioned at the beginning of this story, and, as the fourth in a series, reading the first one helps set all the other characters in their proper place.

    When Cale and Tess meet, there is an instant connection, one that Tess tries hard to ignore given her past, and one that Cale wants to suppress, because of the wounded spirit he senses in Tess. He wants to protect and help her. As they travel together to find Hank, Tess and Cale are wary of the growing feelings between them. It’s an unforgiving land, and they are both unsure who to trust, including themselves. When Tess is hurt in a fall during an attack, Cale finds his way to Vern, a rancher in the Dragoons where Tess allows Cale to use his healing knowledge to help her leg get strong, and she nurtures a wounded blackbird, aware of its connection to her, wounded and in a cage to heal, but wanting to be free. Can Cale bring her the same kind of healing?

    Blackbird is a sensual romance and has all the aspects one might expect for the genre –  and receives high marks as being a keenly written historical novel. The author’s attention to historical detail is evident in the use of traditional Apache terms and realism of the time. Tess’s storytelling ability and memories of her grandmother also add to the flavor of the novel as she sprinkles her stories and conversation with Spanish phrases. But it is the story of two wounded hearts finding each other in the hardscrabble environment of Arizona during the time of Geronimo that makes The Blackbird go beyond “romance.”

    The storyline is so engaging and intense, it is difficult to put down. The description of the Arizona desert, such as the otherworldly look the Dragoon Mountains, as well as the brutality of both the bounty hunters and some native war parties, show the realities of what life was like during those time, for both the settlers and those Apache tribes that wanted to live at peace without government interference.

    The Blackbird by Kristy McCaffrey won First Place in the 2015 LARAMIE Awards!

     

  • THREADS of PASSION by T.K. Conklin – Western, Romance, Historical Fiction

    THREADS of PASSION by T.K. Conklin – Western, Romance, Historical Fiction

    Who is trying to kill Logan McCord?

    The frontier town of Rimrock, deep in Wyoming Territory, is a usually a quiet little place, at least it has been for the past two years since Willow and Skye Strykes settled there to be close to their brother. The sisters stay busy with their successful dress shop, the occasional town dance breaking the monotony, but when Willow’s would-be suitor nearly hangs for a murder he didn’t commit, their lives are altered forever.

    In a desperate bid to save the man she doesn’t even realize she loves, Willow does a crazy thing that ends with the two in a forced marriage, but the young couple’s problems don’t end at the wedding alter. Willow and Skye have their own secret, the secret which compelled them to run from New Orleans in the first place. Before long, Skye and Willow realize their secret has caught up with them, and they must find a way to escape it again before it consumes the entire town.

    The Southern-transplanted sisters, Willow and Skye, are far from the typical romance novel heroines. Both women carry their own scars, Willow on the outside, Skye on the inside. Willow’s limp, the product of severe child abuse, isn’t a focus in the novel but is a definite reflection of the kind of protagonist Willow is. Her strength despite her weakness carries both herself and her sister for a time, and though Skye seems weak and damaged beyond repair, she manages to find a tenacity she never knew she had. Her ordeal is terrifying and devastating, but her love for Willow proves stronger than her memories and the pull of her suicidal thoughts. She must literally face her demons, and with her sister, she manages to do exactly that. Though initially, the number of familial relationships described are daunting, the connection between siblings, both with the women and the men, prove to be a major theme in the novel.

    Logan, the barroom brawler, on the surface appears to be the typical romance hero. But he is more than tall, dark, and handsome. Both Logan and Rafe, his cousin who loves Skye, are gentle and loving. These men help the sisters find the courage to not only share their story but to challenge it head-on. The withholding of physical relationships by these characters creates a strong sexual tension which greatly enhances the plot, and for all those readers who love a touch of the paranormal, Logan’s family will add that, too.

    With threats on all sides and action galore, the mystery will keep you guessing. The almost dual storylines give readers two loves stories for the price of one, and with the potential for a series, more great adventures are likely to come for the McCords and the Strykes.

    Threads of Passion won First Place in the 2017 LARAMIE Awards for T.K. Conklin!

     

     

  • JULY’s SPOTLIGHT is on the LARAMIE PRIZE WINNERS of the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards

    JULY’s SPOTLIGHT is on the LARAMIE PRIZE WINNERS of the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards

    Please join us in congratulating and (reading) these top works in this classic American genre—the Western.  

    Western Pioneeer Civil War Fiction AwardChanticleer Book Reviews is looking for the best books featuring cowboys, the wild west, pioneering, civil war, early North American History, and the Contemporary West! Submit your works today and we will put them to the test and choose the best among them in the LARAMIE BOOK AWARDS, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBA). 

    Michelle Rene’s HOUR GLASS  took home the Laramie Grand Prize Ribbon for 2017 and the OVERALL Grand Prize Ribbon for the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards

    CIBA Overall Grand Prize Winner and Laramie Grand Prize, Michelle Rene
    Click on the cover for the Amazon link.

    Click on the Hour Glass book to order from Amazon

    LARAMIE BOOK AWARD WINNERS for 2017, a division of the CIBA.

    LARAMIE BOOK AWARDS Winners T.K. Conklin, Nick K Adams, J.L. Oakley, Michelle Rene, Kiki Watkins

    The 2017 books have all won a Chanticleer Book Reviews package!

    • Grasshoppers at Dusk by Kiki Watkins
    • Mist-chi-mus: A Novel of Captivity by J.L. Oakley
    • Sacrificial Lions by John Simons/David Simons
    • The Hour Glass by Michelle Rene ***LARAMIE GRAND PRIZE WINNER*** and OVERALL BEST BOOK Chanticleer Reviews
    • Away at War: A Civil War Story of the Family Left Behind by Nick K. Adams
    • Threads of Passion by T.K. Conklin
    • Desertion by Michael Aloysius O’Reilly
    • Death in the Black Patch by Bruce Wilson      

    Western Pioneeer Civil War Fiction AwardJacquie Roger’s HOT WORK IN FRY PAN GULCH: Honey Beaulieu Man Hunter Series took home the 2016 Laramie Grand Prize. Click on the cover for the Amazon link:

    Laramie Grand Prize – JACQUIE ROGERS

    First Place Category Winners for 2016 are: 

    Click on the hyperlinks to read their Chanticleer awarded reviews

    Western Pioneeer Civil War Fiction Award

    The Laramie Grand Prize Winner for 2015 was WIDOW: Flats Junction Series by Sara Dahmen (Originally titled Doctor Kinney’s Housekeeper)

    Sara Dahmen awarded Laramie Grand Prize for DR. KINNEY’S HOUSEKEEPER — now WIDOW 1881 (Book One of the Flats Junction Series)
    WIDOW: Flats Junction, Book One – Click on the cover for the link to Amazon

    The Laramie Grand Prize Winner for 2014 was NOT ON MY MOUNTAIN by Jared McVay

     

    Jared McVay the Laramie Grand Prize Winner

    Dale B. Jackson’s UNBROKE HORSES was awarded the 2013 Laramie Grand Prize

    • Mystery:  Double or Nothing by Meg Mims
    • Historical Fiction:  Because of the Camels by Brenda Blair
    • Civil War:  Ford at Valverde by Anita Melillo (ms)
    • Prairie Pioneer:  They Rode Good Horses by Dale B. Jackson (ms)
    • Literary Western:  Unbroke Horses by Dale B. Jackson
    • First Novel:  Confessions of  a Gunfighter by Tell Cotten (ms)
    • Best Manuscript: Lick Creek by Deborah Lincoln (ms)

    Janet K. Shawgo’s LOOK FOR ME was awarded the 2012 Laramie Book Awards Grand Prize.

    Who will win the LARAMIE Book Awards Blue Ribbons for 2018?

    The judging rounds will commence in August! Submit your works today!

    The last day for submissions into the 2018 Laramie Book Awards is July 31, 2018.

    Click here for more information and submission form! 

    Don’t Delay! Enter Today! 

     

  • The DEVIL’S OWN DESPERADO by Lynda J. Cox – Western Gunslinger, Romance, Literary

    The DEVIL’S OWN DESPERADO by Lynda J. Cox – Western Gunslinger, Romance, Literary

    Can a gunfighter ever truly hang up his guns and settle down in one place? When Colt Evans is wounded in a fight, he flees – as far away as he can get – searching for a place to heal. What he finds has the potential to change his life forever and make him yearn to settle down. But, will his past stay behind him?

    Injured and on the run, Colt Evans stumbles upon a remote homestead owned and operated by Amelia McCollister and her two siblings. The orphaned siblings have strong feelings about gunfighters as their parents were shot to death by outlaws several years earlier. Due to this sad fact, when the well-known gunfighter arrives at the homestead, Amelia is reluctant to open her home to the man.

    Despite this, she follow her nature to heal rather than harm the wounded Colt against the warnings of the doctor and Marshall of the town. As she nurses Colt back to health, Amelia’s strong misgivings about this stranger seem to disappear.  Colt finds that the longer he is with Amelia, he doesn’t want to leave. However, he knows that someone will eventually come looking for him. He does not want to stay and bring trouble to Amelia and her siblings; however, the longer he remains on the homestead, the stronger his feeling for Amelia grow.

    As Colt had feared, his enemies find him. The danger is just too severe for Amelia and her brothers, so Colt leaves. However, once a gunfighter, always a gunfighter – at least in reputation. When Colt is ambushed and left for dead, the only thing that keeps him alive is his last drive to find Amelia, the love of his life.

    Lynda J. Cox has crafted an enjoyable novel of the Old West. Nelson’s writing is engaging and flawless as she weaves the needs and desires of her two main characters against the brutal reality of the 1880’s into the story. This is a classic romance set-up, and it works to the readers’ delight. The book presents a well-balanced mix of romance and gritty 1887 Wild West action. This combination makes for one page-turning Western epic.

    The Devil’s Own Desperado by Lynda J. Cox won First Place in the 2015 LARAMIE Awards!

  • CLEVENGER GOLD: The TRUE STORY of MURDER and UNFOUND TREASURE by Scott Elson Swapp – Old West, Crime Thriller, Treasure

    CLEVENGER GOLD: The TRUE STORY of MURDER and UNFOUND TREASURE by Scott Elson Swapp – Old West, Crime Thriller, Treasure

    Sam Clevenger is an old curmudgeon, endlessly cranky and critical of those around him.  He has liquidated his assets, his ranch and livestock, into gold bullion, worth about a million dollars by today’s figures. His “bank” is an old Dutch oven pot and no one knows the pot’s contents.

    When Clevenger’s wife, Charlotte, falls ill with tuberculosis, Sam hopes moving to Washington Territory will improve her health. Sam is mean to everyone – even Jessie, the couple’s fifteen-year-old adopted daughter. He treats her like a ranch hand, and she resents it. But everyone has their limits, and Sam realizes that moving horses and mules through the Buckskin Mountains will be very difficult, more work than he and Jessie can manage, so he hires John Johnson, a bi-racial soldier just released from the U.S. Cavalry, and a handsome young man, Frank Willson, who’s eager to work.

    The group has many adventures as they head from the Arizona Territory north. Several indigenous peoples are in the area and relations with various tribes are extremely tense. Hungry coyotes stalk the travelers and tensions rise high as the group must ferry the wagon and the animals across a tumultuous river. Despite the care the Clevenger’s take with the wagons, Charlotte has difficulty traveling over rough terrain and the biggest fear is she won’t last the trip.

    Of course, where there are young vivacious people working together, romance is bound to grow. So, it is no surprise when a flirtation begins between Frank and Jessie blooms into something more, causing Frank to become increasingly protective of her when Sam treats her with cruelty and scorn. John and Frank work well together, but, being of mixed race, John is subject to Sam’s racist language and attitudes.

    Traveling by wagon with a team of animals in the late 19th century was a huge and precarious undertaking. Each day is a quest to cover as many miles as possible and to find a safe place to sleep at night. Hunting rabbits for dinner is a gamble because the sound of gunshots could alert Indians to the campers’ presence. Readers will feel as if they’re on the journey themselves.

    Sam hides his gold in plain sight, the Dutch oven hangs from the wagon like any kitchen utensil by day, but he buries the pot each night. The scene is set for explosive confrontations, murders, cover-ups, lies, trials, jail sentences and fatal consequences. This book is as suspenseful as any thriller, more so because these events are a part of history.

    Clevenger Gold is a scintillating work of historic fiction, but as its subtitle notes, it’s also “the true story of murder and unfound treasure.”  In the book’s preface and introduction, author Scott Eldon Swapp states that the basic facts on which the narrative rests are accurate. While researching this deeply fascinating tale of a family journeying from the Arizona Territory to the Washington Territory in the 1870s with a couple of hired hands, Swapp studied county, state, territorial and national archives. He shares his methodology and research finds with the reader, and most chapter titles mark the exact location and time of specific incidents on the trip. Swapp clearly strives for the utmost accuracy in recreating this wildly dramatic episode in U.S. territorial history.

    Much of the plot takes places via dialogue and Swapp writes the verve and sass of cowboy lingo with relish. Swapp’s enthusiasm for the mystery of the buried treasure is infectious.

    Sam’s gold is still out there, waiting to be found. Swapp encourages the reader with these words, “If you have the skills and patience to seek real treasure, go get it!”

    Clevenger Gold: The True Story of Murder and Unfound Treasure by Scott Eldon Swapp won First Place in the 2016 Laramie Awards!

     

  • IMPROBABLE FORTUNES: A NOVEL by Jeffrey Price – Western, Satire, Contemporary Fiction

    IMPROBABLE FORTUNES: A NOVEL by Jeffrey Price – Western, Satire, Contemporary Fiction

    Buster McCaffery wants a family. An orphan from birth, Buster has spent his entire life searching for a forever family in the tiny Western town of Vanadium, population 367. After a tragic birth, Buster is handed from family to family until he reaches his maturity. His only true protector, Sheriff Shep Dudival, ensures Buster stays out of trouble, but when three of Buster’s adopted fathers die in mysterious ways, the town quickly assumes the worst, and Buster becomes a social pariah.

    No one trusts Buster until a wealthy New York businessman, Marvin Mallomar, reinvigorates the economy of Vanadium. Buster takes on hero status as foreman and friend of the would-be savior until a catastrophic mudslide wipes out half the town, and Buster is the suspected murderer of Mallomar. Now Buster must convince a jury he never killed anyone, much less his best friend.

    Told as a flashback, Improbable Fortunes by Jeffrey Price is a wild romp! The prolific backstories, like the muskrat burrows that play a role in the novel, create a complex network of tunnels that twist and turn into an ironically stable tale of family, trust, and some flawed, albeit well-meaning, loyalty. This completely satirical read leaves the reader simultaneously laughing while feeling ashamed at finding humor in the pathetic lives of the characters.

    From the Busy Bees, the local drug-dealing gang to the defunct uranium mine that gave the town its claim to fame, Lame Horse County will remind the reader of William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County or Mayberry gone awry. Buster McCaffrey, who looks like Howdy Doody and acts like the big-hearted–possible serial killing–buffoon, prays for those who take him in even though they deprive him of an education, use him for hard labor, attempt to molest him, and think he’s a murderer.

    Sheriff Shep Dudival (think Andy Griffith with a dark streak) is Buster’s only real father-figure who touchingly gives Buster what is likely his first birthday gift in the form of a restored pickup truck. He’s a shepherd in the truest sense, steering Buster’s life as best he can. Jimmy Bayles Morgan, another important character, is an Old West cowboy with a strange secret and an undeniable affinity to Buster’s suffering.

    Buster’s story meanders from a tile-making gangster family to pudgy Teutonic nudists to a rodeo star wife beater to a hen-pecked rancher with a maiden name to a cancer-riddled transvestite to a billionaire tycoon, and the reader will not be able to put it down. His devotion to the aptly named Destiny is touching and sad at the same time, and the petty caginess of his “families” only highlights Buster’s goodness. The reader will be rooting for Buster, Shep, and Jimmy even while feeling guilty for it.

    Price’s novel is a bronc-busting ride that will have the reader holding on for the entire book. A clever mix of spaghetti Western and crime novel, Improbable Fortunes is a satirical treasure as “improbable” as the rebirth of the woe-begotten protagonist.

    Improbable Fortunes by Jeffrey Price won First Place in the 2016 Laramie Awards!