Matt McAvoy Book Review

It is a sprawling epic of big country proportions, yet depicting a time when the Wild West style of violence – while still brutal, as seen in the indifference and sadism shown by Clyde and Moondog, who this time pit themselves against the wrong prey – was generally fading to become something altogether more organized and less indiscriminate.  These are the days which, arguably, saw the transition of the South from lawless to something more communal and civilized – though with that appraisal I run the risk of sounding like the very same conquerors who dragged the Natives kicking and screaming, against their will, into “Polite Culture”.  You can almost sense instinctively while reading that many of the characters in this book are a dying breed, in each of their respective ways.  To some extent, it is heartbreaking to read, yet also a reminder of all the good things we’ve learnt about ourselves, each other and humanity generally since then.

Mark is superb, as I recall from last reading his work, and this is a very worthy second publication from him, every bit as good as the first.  His ability to craft a tale is something innate; the strands complement each other fantastically well, each storyline perfectly weighted and perfectly timed.  Admittedly, there are a couple of issues with punctuation which I had to turn a blind eye to, in truth – but if you are going to let minutiae put you off this book, I can tell you for a fact that you’re going to be frivolously missing a treat.  If you like grand-palette frontier tales set around this time, and are partial to stories woven with an expert’s thread, you couldn’t do a great deal better, to be honest.  It has quality, real author investment, and most of all, it has heart.