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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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THE MADSTONE

Elizabeth Crook

With echoes of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove and Paulette Jiles' News of the World, the riveting story of a pregnant young mother, her child, and the frontier carpenter who helps them flee across Texas from outlaws bent on revenge, even as an unlikely love blossoms.
Texas, 1868. As nineteen-year-old Benjamin Shreve tends to business in his workshop, he witnesses a stagecoach strand a passenger. When the man persuades Benjamin to help track down the vanished coach -and a mysterious fortune left aboard- he is drawn into a drama whose scope he could never have imagined.

The missing coach has a surprise in store: its other passengers include Nell, a pregnant young woman, and her four-year-old son, Tot, who are on the run from Nell's brutal husband and his murderous brothers. After learning of their plight, Benjamin offers Nell and Tot passage to the distant Gulf of Mexico, where they can escape to safety. This chivalrous act will prove more dangerous than he could have expected, as buried secrets -including a cursed necklace- reveal themselves.

Even as Benjamin falls in love with Nell and imagines life as Tot's father, vengeful pursuers are on their trail. With its vivid characters and expansive canvas, The Madstone calls to mind Larry McMurtry's American epics. The novel is full of eccentric action, unrelenting peril, and droll humor - a thrilling and beautifully rendered story of three people sharing a hazardous and defining journey that will forever bind them together.

THE MADSTONE's power is that of a love story. A mother's love for her son has never been more achingly rendered, nor has a young man's first love.

Elizabeth Crook has published five previous novels, including The Which Way Tree, The Night Journal, which received the Spur Award from Western Writers of America, and Monday, Monday, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2014 and winner of the Jesse H. Jones Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her family.
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Book

Published 2023-11-07 by Little Brown

Book

Published 2023-11-07 by Little Brown

Comments

Crook's (The Which Way Tree) latest novel is a thrilling story of three people sharing a hazardous and defining journey that will forever bind them together.

Elizabeth Crook is a magician of a novelist, bringing the past to life with a tale of epic proportions that must be read to be believed. The voice of Benjamin Shreve stands alone in recent fiction, and all of Crook's characters linger long after you've finished reading. The Madstone is a marvel.

It would be unfair to call Elizabeth Crook the true heir to Paulette Jiles, Charles Portis, and Larry McMurtry, because Crook's style is emphatically her own, but I want to anyway because she's just so damn good. The Madstone, one long riveting epistle that reads like music, has a fully formed voice in its young narrator, pitch-perfect dialogue, and wit as dry as a mesquite tree. I would read, and will continue to read, anything Crook writes.

Crook has a gift for engaging details... The guiding spirit here is Dickens... An entertaining, well-paced yarn.

This is a wonder of a novel. The Madstone took me by the hand and didn't let go until the last page. The flow of the singular and captivating narrative voice, the heart-rending love story, and the page-turning suspense are all one of a kind. I will not forget this road trip quest and its endearing characters.

[A] a treasure: a brilliant, beautiful page-turner of a book.

This epistolary novel will appeal to western and historical fiction readers alike (particularly Lone Star aficionados).

[A] wonderful book. The tale that Elizabeth Crook conjures... should take its place alongside the very best novels of the American West, a top rank that includes Lonesome Dove, Little Big Man, News of the World, and Blood Meridian. Yes, it's that good; I didn't want it to end.

Elizabeth Crook is already a household name in Texas, but The Madstone should establish her as a national figure, evoking the works of Charles Portis and Larry McMurtry as we go on a harrowing (and sometimes humorous) ride through 1868 Texas.

The Madstone is a wonderful book. The tale that Elizabeth Crook conjures out of the most basic materials - a man goes on a trip, things happen, and the trip becomes a quest - should take its place alongside the very best novels of the American West, a top rank that includes Lonesome Dove, Little Big Man, News of the World, and Blood Meridian. Yes, it's that good; I didn't want it to end. Benjamin Shreve and his compatriots affected me as few characters have in recent years, and I think of them still.

[A] beautifully crafted story... Benjamin's smart, heartfelt and witty narration makes the story as well as the manner in which Crook brings 1860s Texas vividly to life. Her writing and sense of place are stunning. This will be one of my favorite reads of the year. Have tissues handy when you read it.

UK: Bedford Square Publishers