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The Bastard Hand
Charlie Wesley is not right in the head. He’s escaped from a mental hospital up north and hitchhiked his way south, the voice of his dead brother urging him on. But when Charlie hits Memphis, the fine line between his delusions and reality shift in the form of the Reverend Phineas Childe—a preacher bent on booze and women; a Man of God with a dark agenda. Charlie is the perfect pawn in the Reverend’s game of retribution. And the small North Mississippi town of Cuba Landing will be the setting for the Reverend’s very personal Apocalypse. . . .
276 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 21, 2011
About the author
Heath Lowrance
26 books99 followersHeath Lowrance is the author of HAWTHORNE: TALES OF A WEIRDER WEST, THE AXEMAN OF STORYVILLE, CITY OF HERETICS, THE BASTARD HAND, DIG TEN GRAVES, FIGHT CARD: BLUFF CITY BRAWLER (as Jack Tunney) and the novella "Miles to Little Ridge".
His other stories have appeared in the anthologies OFF THE RECORD, BURNING BRIDGES, PULP INK 2, LEE, HOODS, HOT RODS & HELLCATS and 5 BROKEN WINCHESTERS.
He has been a movie theater manager, a tour guide at Sun Studio, a singer in a punk band, and a regular donor of blood for money. In 48 years, he's engaged in a hundred years worth of anti-social behavior. Originally from Tennessee, he now lives in Lansing, Michigan.
His other stories have appeared in the anthologies OFF THE RECORD, BURNING BRIDGES, PULP INK 2, LEE, HOODS, HOT RODS & HELLCATS and 5 BROKEN WINCHESTERS.
He has been a movie theater manager, a tour guide at Sun Studio, a singer in a punk band, and a regular donor of blood for money. In 48 years, he's engaged in a hundred years worth of anti-social behavior. Originally from Tennessee, he now lives in Lansing, Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
December 18, 2012
THE BASTARD HAND is a fine example of neo-noir; a bleak and dangerous tale wielding a paranormal or fantastical scythe splashing sticky blood red across the walls, ending lives and forging new ones. For Charlie Wesley, a grifter with no prospects, a former resident of a mental institution, and one-time cop killer – doing a good deed here and there should go rewarded. Unfortunately, the universe doesn’t look too kindly upon Charley and before long he’s bleeding out on a deserted back street watching a con-woman and her crew walk away with his cash and dignity.
Enter the preacher man. Seemingly through divine intervention, Charlie is saved, or rather, offered an ambiguous role alongside fellow grifter and man of God, Reverend Phineas Childe. On route to a small town in need of his services, Childe strikes up a half hearted friendship with Charlie – surely a con, either man’s motives are convoluted yet kept secure as they bend the township to their will. From women to coin, the Reverend’s vices are more mortal than the word he preaches – yet his unorthodox delivery is at once confronting and respected by the township. Once the spell is cast the real fun begins and THE BASTARD HAND takes on a whole new life.
About midway through THE BASTARD HAND I was comparing the delivery and small-town noir feel to another New Pulp Press title HELL ON CHURCH STREET by Jake Hinkson, the similarities were hard to ignore – while good in their own right I couldn’t shake the need to want more than a run of the mill noir with characters I’d read about before. Heath Lowrance answered the calling and turned the story on its head by evolving Charlie and Childe into something much more than man. With powers unparalleled, Charlie regenerates both his bodily harms and thought process and manages to take his future into his own hands – you could say, his own bastard hands.
Drug money, backstabbing, double-crosses, and ill fated love affairs become commonplace as Charlie addresses his new gift while exposing all that gave him hope in the first place. Temptations of the flesh and monetary security alike henceforth drive this revelation-led new world order. As the past catches up with him, Charlie’s new found survival skills kick into place producing an enthralling read leading to a bloody conclusion.
THE BASTARD HAND is a unique piece of writing by an author with a very bright future. All at once, catering to the traditionalist Thompson noir, urban-fantasy, new-noir, and hopeless romantic genres at once, the concept and plot will hook almost any reader. 4 stars.
This review also appears on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
Enter the preacher man. Seemingly through divine intervention, Charlie is saved, or rather, offered an ambiguous role alongside fellow grifter and man of God, Reverend Phineas Childe. On route to a small town in need of his services, Childe strikes up a half hearted friendship with Charlie – surely a con, either man’s motives are convoluted yet kept secure as they bend the township to their will. From women to coin, the Reverend’s vices are more mortal than the word he preaches – yet his unorthodox delivery is at once confronting and respected by the township. Once the spell is cast the real fun begins and THE BASTARD HAND takes on a whole new life.
About midway through THE BASTARD HAND I was comparing the delivery and small-town noir feel to another New Pulp Press title HELL ON CHURCH STREET by Jake Hinkson, the similarities were hard to ignore – while good in their own right I couldn’t shake the need to want more than a run of the mill noir with characters I’d read about before. Heath Lowrance answered the calling and turned the story on its head by evolving Charlie and Childe into something much more than man. With powers unparalleled, Charlie regenerates both his bodily harms and thought process and manages to take his future into his own hands – you could say, his own bastard hands.
Drug money, backstabbing, double-crosses, and ill fated love affairs become commonplace as Charlie addresses his new gift while exposing all that gave him hope in the first place. Temptations of the flesh and monetary security alike henceforth drive this revelation-led new world order. As the past catches up with him, Charlie’s new found survival skills kick into place producing an enthralling read leading to a bloody conclusion.
THE BASTARD HAND is a unique piece of writing by an author with a very bright future. All at once, catering to the traditionalist Thompson noir, urban-fantasy, new-noir, and hopeless romantic genres at once, the concept and plot will hook almost any reader. 4 stars.
This review also appears on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
September 30, 2012
What can I say about this novel? If it had been written by Stephen King it would be probably already be lauded as a classic and he’d be sitting on a fat cheque for the film rights. As it is I bought it for free and frankly that’s criminal. Heath Lowrance has accomplished so much with this novel that it’s difficult to know where to start.
Charlie Wesley is an escapee from a mental institution and he’s drifting across the States with little goal or purpose. When he gets mugged it’s the start of a chain of events. The following day he meets the charismatic Reverend Phineas Childe. The two become friends and Charlie travels with the preacher to the town of Cuba Landing.
Lowrance tells the tale from Charlie’s perspective. We soon discover that all is not well in the rotten town of Cuba Landing. The observations Lowrance makes are often witty but it is clear that this is going to be a tale darkness and corruption. There are so many plot elements cunningly woven into this novel that sometimes you skip past them and then BAM you’re hit in the face by a revelation. There are twists and turns but you NEVER lose track of what is going on. Here lies Lowrance’s skill. He weaves such a complex tale but it’s so easy to follow.
The characters are vividly drawn in three dimensions. Charlie as the hero of the novel is amoral and at times downright nasty. The Reverend is charismatic and you can’t help but like the old rogue even though his heart is as black as a politician’s heart. There’s also a dose of small town politics and it’s obvious the Mayor has secrets of his. Add in a supernatural element into the mix and you have a masterpiece of a novel that will appeal to broad range of readers. This novel is the literary equivalent of a perfectly written and melancholy Nick Cave or Leonard Cohen track. Flawless and brilliant.
Charlie Wesley is an escapee from a mental institution and he’s drifting across the States with little goal or purpose. When he gets mugged it’s the start of a chain of events. The following day he meets the charismatic Reverend Phineas Childe. The two become friends and Charlie travels with the preacher to the town of Cuba Landing.
Lowrance tells the tale from Charlie’s perspective. We soon discover that all is not well in the rotten town of Cuba Landing. The observations Lowrance makes are often witty but it is clear that this is going to be a tale darkness and corruption. There are so many plot elements cunningly woven into this novel that sometimes you skip past them and then BAM you’re hit in the face by a revelation. There are twists and turns but you NEVER lose track of what is going on. Here lies Lowrance’s skill. He weaves such a complex tale but it’s so easy to follow.
The characters are vividly drawn in three dimensions. Charlie as the hero of the novel is amoral and at times downright nasty. The Reverend is charismatic and you can’t help but like the old rogue even though his heart is as black as a politician’s heart. There’s also a dose of small town politics and it’s obvious the Mayor has secrets of his. Add in a supernatural element into the mix and you have a masterpiece of a novel that will appeal to broad range of readers. This novel is the literary equivalent of a perfectly written and melancholy Nick Cave or Leonard Cohen track. Flawless and brilliant.
June 18, 2011
The Bastard Hand. That’s one hell of a title. The great news is that
the book entirely lives up to the billing.
It’s not that long ago that here in the UK there were lots of fires
burning up moorland and woods, challenging the fire-services to
their limits. The countryside had been turned into smouldering
fields, so nobody knew where the next flames were going to sprout
from.
That’s how I see this book. It’s a smoulderer which catches flame
regularly as the author expertly blows upon the embers.
Take the opening. It’s beautifully described. We meet Charlie,
escapee of an institution, free of his therapies and his medication,
wandering as his spirit takes him. Being in a town he doesn’t know,
he finds himself in a dodgy area and is soon battered to bits by a
small-time gang headed by a beautiful woman. He’s stabbed and
left for dead. And he was being nice, too. There’s certainly no
justice in his world.
He’s not one to go to hospital – it doesn’t seem to occur to him that
it might be a good idea. Instead, he does it his own way and lets his
body recover in its own good time.
Soon enough, he ambles over to the laundrette. Puts in his clothes
and discovers a bible with a hole through the ‘O’ of holy. He reads
Genesis until he’s interrupted by a preacher man, the Reverend
Childe, who could talk the Ten Commandments from Moses. Even
though Charlie knows the man’s no good, partly because he was in
a laundrette without any laundry, he sticks with him.
They visit a brothel, for the Reverend likes his drink and his
women and, from that point on, Charlie’s life is intertwined with
Childe’s like a swimmer might get tangled in pond weed.
From then on the book smoulders away, bursting into flame without
warning.
The series of events that follows unfolds beautifully. Not once
during the read did I feel any of the situations were forced, it was
simply the way it needed to be.
Missing preachers, small Southern town life, a crazy (though not
stupid) mayor, a number of women who all have their own allure,
gang battles, illicit stills and a series of plots and counter-plots like
you wouldn’t believe, fan those flames all the way through as does
Charlie’s madness.
Yes, Charlie is crazy, or at least he would seem so if the folk around
him weren’t so unusual. Lowrance is clever with his characters. I
felt blindfolded from the beginning so that I couldn’t tell the good
from the bad or the wicked from the saint. It’s one hell of a thing to
pull off, yet he did it with the subtlety of a close magician.
So Charlie’s crazy and he’s also our story-teller. It gives the whole
piece a curious foundation that’s part cement, part quicksand.
I loved this book. Really loved it.
It’s place in a contemporary setting, yet for me there are echoes of
older works and older times. The images I conjured for myself
were all in black and white and there’s something of the classic-noir
movie in this work.
Though full of dark events and madness, it’s written with a light
touch I hadn’t expected. Smooth as a ride on new tyres in a
freshly serviced car along a flat tarmac road when the living is easy.
His characterisations are so three-dimensional they’ll poke a reader
in the eye if they’re not careful. The people who inhabit the
book I liked, mistrusted, hated and loved in turn, every last one of
them.
The weaving through of the preacher and the bible offers a powerful
medicine of its own. Not an expert on the bible, I have to play it
through the filters of Nick Cave and Night Of The Hunter, but I felt
the weight of the Old Testament burdening the skies in the novel
and my own.
Lowrance, like God himself, plays with Charlie like he played
with Job. He takes advantage of Charlie’s misplaced senses of
loyalty and obligation, lets things go well then turns them all to
shit when he’s least expecting it.
I’ve mentioned a few of the echoes I felt as I read. Here are a few
other ghosts I felt were hanging around – Harper Lee, John
Steinbeck, Guthrie’s Slammer and the movie Inherit The Wind;
maybe it’s way off beam to cite those, but you’ll have to read it for
yourself make up your own mind.
A brilliant book by a writer of real talent.
A++
the book entirely lives up to the billing.
It’s not that long ago that here in the UK there were lots of fires
burning up moorland and woods, challenging the fire-services to
their limits. The countryside had been turned into smouldering
fields, so nobody knew where the next flames were going to sprout
from.
That’s how I see this book. It’s a smoulderer which catches flame
regularly as the author expertly blows upon the embers.
Take the opening. It’s beautifully described. We meet Charlie,
escapee of an institution, free of his therapies and his medication,
wandering as his spirit takes him. Being in a town he doesn’t know,
he finds himself in a dodgy area and is soon battered to bits by a
small-time gang headed by a beautiful woman. He’s stabbed and
left for dead. And he was being nice, too. There’s certainly no
justice in his world.
He’s not one to go to hospital – it doesn’t seem to occur to him that
it might be a good idea. Instead, he does it his own way and lets his
body recover in its own good time.
Soon enough, he ambles over to the laundrette. Puts in his clothes
and discovers a bible with a hole through the ‘O’ of holy. He reads
Genesis until he’s interrupted by a preacher man, the Reverend
Childe, who could talk the Ten Commandments from Moses. Even
though Charlie knows the man’s no good, partly because he was in
a laundrette without any laundry, he sticks with him.
They visit a brothel, for the Reverend likes his drink and his
women and, from that point on, Charlie’s life is intertwined with
Childe’s like a swimmer might get tangled in pond weed.
From then on the book smoulders away, bursting into flame without
warning.
The series of events that follows unfolds beautifully. Not once
during the read did I feel any of the situations were forced, it was
simply the way it needed to be.
Missing preachers, small Southern town life, a crazy (though not
stupid) mayor, a number of women who all have their own allure,
gang battles, illicit stills and a series of plots and counter-plots like
you wouldn’t believe, fan those flames all the way through as does
Charlie’s madness.
Yes, Charlie is crazy, or at least he would seem so if the folk around
him weren’t so unusual. Lowrance is clever with his characters. I
felt blindfolded from the beginning so that I couldn’t tell the good
from the bad or the wicked from the saint. It’s one hell of a thing to
pull off, yet he did it with the subtlety of a close magician.
So Charlie’s crazy and he’s also our story-teller. It gives the whole
piece a curious foundation that’s part cement, part quicksand.
I loved this book. Really loved it.
It’s place in a contemporary setting, yet for me there are echoes of
older works and older times. The images I conjured for myself
were all in black and white and there’s something of the classic-noir
movie in this work.
Though full of dark events and madness, it’s written with a light
touch I hadn’t expected. Smooth as a ride on new tyres in a
freshly serviced car along a flat tarmac road when the living is easy.
His characterisations are so three-dimensional they’ll poke a reader
in the eye if they’re not careful. The people who inhabit the
book I liked, mistrusted, hated and loved in turn, every last one of
them.
The weaving through of the preacher and the bible offers a powerful
medicine of its own. Not an expert on the bible, I have to play it
through the filters of Nick Cave and Night Of The Hunter, but I felt
the weight of the Old Testament burdening the skies in the novel
and my own.
Lowrance, like God himself, plays with Charlie like he played
with Job. He takes advantage of Charlie’s misplaced senses of
loyalty and obligation, lets things go well then turns them all to
shit when he’s least expecting it.
I’ve mentioned a few of the echoes I felt as I read. Here are a few
other ghosts I felt were hanging around – Harper Lee, John
Steinbeck, Guthrie’s Slammer and the movie Inherit The Wind;
maybe it’s way off beam to cite those, but you’ll have to read it for
yourself make up your own mind.
A brilliant book by a writer of real talent.
A++
April 7, 2011
Charlie Wesley is a drifter with a violent past, a man who converses more with his brother now that the man is dead than he ever did while he was breathing. He's traveling aimlessly, with a vague notion of heading south to Florida, when against all odds he somehow survives a brutal mugging in Memphis, Tennessee.
Shortly afterward Charlie finds a discarded bible in a laundromat with a strange hole running through the middle of the book. With nothing better to do, he begins reading, leading to a seemingly random encounter with one of the strangest preachers he has ever met, a man with the unlikely name of Reverend Phinneas Childe.
The two strike up an uneasy friendship and travel together to the tiny, bucolic town of Cuba Landing, Mississippi, where Childe has been hired to replace the previous pastor of the Cuba Landing Freewill Baptist Church, a man who disappeared nearly one year ago under mysterious circumstances.
Charlie begins to believe Reverend Childe has a plan for Cuba Landing that involves much more than spreading God's word, and the more layers he peels back from the surface of life in the tiny town, the uglier things appear. An apocalyptic storm is about to be unleashed on this out-of-the-way village in rural Mississippi; one which Charlie - not to mention Reverend Childe and everyone else in town - will be lucky to survive.
Heath Lowrance is a debut author but he writes like a true craftsman. THE BASTARD HAND is classic noir with a twist. It features dirty, gritty dialogue spoken by dirty, gritty characters and in classic noir fashion you might have trouble determining exactly who the "good guy" is, or if there even is one. Purity of motive is hard to come by in Cuba Landing.
What's the twist? Religion is featured heavily; faith is used like a battering ram by a cynical preacher; a man who is a master manipulator. Over the course of nearly three hundred pages, Lowrance explores themes of good and evil, right and wrong, and whether it is possible for a sliding scale to apply.
There's plenty of action - bullets fly, knives are brandished, sex is had, people are crossed and double-crossed, and the climactic scene is one you will never forget.
I have to be honest - I've struck up a friendship with Heath Lowrance over the last several months, despite the fact we've never met in person. So I was prepared to enjoy THE BASTARD HAND. But I was blown away, both by the quality of the writing - his prose goes down easy like the finest Tennessee whiskey - and the intricate plot and lifelike characters.
This book is the rare novel that will captivate any noir fan while forcing the reader to consider life in ways he or she may never have done before. If you're a noir fan, get used to the name Heath Lowrance. You'll be hearing it for a long time.
Shortly afterward Charlie finds a discarded bible in a laundromat with a strange hole running through the middle of the book. With nothing better to do, he begins reading, leading to a seemingly random encounter with one of the strangest preachers he has ever met, a man with the unlikely name of Reverend Phinneas Childe.
The two strike up an uneasy friendship and travel together to the tiny, bucolic town of Cuba Landing, Mississippi, where Childe has been hired to replace the previous pastor of the Cuba Landing Freewill Baptist Church, a man who disappeared nearly one year ago under mysterious circumstances.
Charlie begins to believe Reverend Childe has a plan for Cuba Landing that involves much more than spreading God's word, and the more layers he peels back from the surface of life in the tiny town, the uglier things appear. An apocalyptic storm is about to be unleashed on this out-of-the-way village in rural Mississippi; one which Charlie - not to mention Reverend Childe and everyone else in town - will be lucky to survive.
Heath Lowrance is a debut author but he writes like a true craftsman. THE BASTARD HAND is classic noir with a twist. It features dirty, gritty dialogue spoken by dirty, gritty characters and in classic noir fashion you might have trouble determining exactly who the "good guy" is, or if there even is one. Purity of motive is hard to come by in Cuba Landing.
What's the twist? Religion is featured heavily; faith is used like a battering ram by a cynical preacher; a man who is a master manipulator. Over the course of nearly three hundred pages, Lowrance explores themes of good and evil, right and wrong, and whether it is possible for a sliding scale to apply.
There's plenty of action - bullets fly, knives are brandished, sex is had, people are crossed and double-crossed, and the climactic scene is one you will never forget.
I have to be honest - I've struck up a friendship with Heath Lowrance over the last several months, despite the fact we've never met in person. So I was prepared to enjoy THE BASTARD HAND. But I was blown away, both by the quality of the writing - his prose goes down easy like the finest Tennessee whiskey - and the intricate plot and lifelike characters.
This book is the rare novel that will captivate any noir fan while forcing the reader to consider life in ways he or she may never have done before. If you're a noir fan, get used to the name Heath Lowrance. You'll be hearing it for a long time.
March 29, 2011
Noir has evolved, I keep saying it. We have James Ellroy to thank for that. The man destroyed the conventions of the genre and built back something completely new with his bare hands. Something new and free from the constraints of the hardboiled genre. I guess I wasn’t positive enough, because not only the genre evolved, but it’s proliferating like the children of a post-war boom. The Bastard Hand, first novel of short stories circuit veteran Heath Lowrance is the prime example of that.
One the main hooks of The Bastard Hand is that it’s free of the cops n’ robbers dynamic, it’s a novel that drags you far into the bad guys territory and yet, it’s tricking you into a similar good versus evil scenario. And when I say “tricking”, my word is carefully chosen. The narrator is Charlie Wesley, your everyday, normal, fun-loving fellow that hears the voice of his dead brother in his head. Or does he have a dead brother at all? Is he so disturbed that he created a past life for himself. You see the genre, a charming individual.
On the run, Charlie stops my Memphis where he meets Reverend Phineas Childe, a man of God, or should I say a man who found (and constantly finds) the answers to what he needs in the Bible. In the Reverend, Charlie finds a companion and a moral lighthouse in his quest for a little peace and happiness. And in Charlie, the Reverend found the perfect, dedicated personal assistant and a precious help for his crusade against the small city of Cuba Landing, as long as he can control him.
The Bastard Hand establishes from the get go that good and evil are human creations and Charlie, a narrator crazy enough to feel detached from those values, makes it clear as day to when he needs to position himself in the political game. Through his narrator, Lowrance makes a point about the destructive nature of human politics. Despite his natural skills and instincts for violence, Charlie is a simple man, whose life could be fulfilled with just a few things, but the confrontation of powers turn him into a tool of destruction.
The density of The Bastard Hand goes even way beyond that. It’s a novel written with the fire of anger, but his wrath is not blind or vain. Heath Lowrance is teeing off on precise targets and achieves mass destruction. It’s halfway in between a Nietszchean wet dream, where the idols keep falling and an angry manifesto for the downtrodden. The Bastard Hand is a spectacular, yet graceful novel that leaves you wanting more from Heath Lowrance.
(taken from my blog: www.deadendfollies.com)
One the main hooks of The Bastard Hand is that it’s free of the cops n’ robbers dynamic, it’s a novel that drags you far into the bad guys territory and yet, it’s tricking you into a similar good versus evil scenario. And when I say “tricking”, my word is carefully chosen. The narrator is Charlie Wesley, your everyday, normal, fun-loving fellow that hears the voice of his dead brother in his head. Or does he have a dead brother at all? Is he so disturbed that he created a past life for himself. You see the genre, a charming individual.
On the run, Charlie stops my Memphis where he meets Reverend Phineas Childe, a man of God, or should I say a man who found (and constantly finds) the answers to what he needs in the Bible. In the Reverend, Charlie finds a companion and a moral lighthouse in his quest for a little peace and happiness. And in Charlie, the Reverend found the perfect, dedicated personal assistant and a precious help for his crusade against the small city of Cuba Landing, as long as he can control him.
The Bastard Hand establishes from the get go that good and evil are human creations and Charlie, a narrator crazy enough to feel detached from those values, makes it clear as day to when he needs to position himself in the political game. Through his narrator, Lowrance makes a point about the destructive nature of human politics. Despite his natural skills and instincts for violence, Charlie is a simple man, whose life could be fulfilled with just a few things, but the confrontation of powers turn him into a tool of destruction.
The density of The Bastard Hand goes even way beyond that. It’s a novel written with the fire of anger, but his wrath is not blind or vain. Heath Lowrance is teeing off on precise targets and achieves mass destruction. It’s halfway in between a Nietszchean wet dream, where the idols keep falling and an angry manifesto for the downtrodden. The Bastard Hand is a spectacular, yet graceful novel that leaves you wanting more from Heath Lowrance.
(taken from my blog: www.deadendfollies.com)
October 28, 2012
Holy Moses, here's a good'un for you right here. Noir, pulp and southern Gothic combine in this outrageous tale of mental sickness, religion and the supernatural in a small time outside of Memphis. The protagonist Charley Wesley has some flaws and a half but none the less has a moral code and is easy to get behind, which I am sure we can agree is the fundament of all leading characters. But it is the sheer, breath-taking imagination that went into the character of the Bad Reverend Phineas Childe that sets this story way apart from the rest. I would be hard pressed to think of a character that was as both unique and rich and truly iconoclastic as this wretch. Speaking of unique, it is monument to our sick illiterate society that we must always liken the writing of new authors to established writers but by Golly, I cannot do that with Lowrence. His style is his own, and for this very reason, anyone who loves dark, gritty fiction must check him out. His descriptions of the landscape, even on simple scenes like when Wesley has to pop out to get some soda pop for the congregation, and his skills with dialogue are sublime. A modern classic, order it now.
October 8, 2011
This is a great "psycho-noir" thriller. It's a heady mix of crime novel, character study, religion, sex, and the supernatural. Lowrance is a gifted writer, and kept me engaged for the entire wild ride. Think of it as CHINATOWN rewritten by James Crumley and directed by Rob Zombie, although that's really only scratching the surface.
Highly recommended for people who aren't afraid of something different.
Highly recommended for people who aren't afraid of something different.
February 27, 2012
This book made me literally laugh myself silly at times, but in a good way. My sister said she did not think it was supposed to be a comedy, but I seem to have a stragne sense of dark humor. This book was so good, I had a hard time putting it down each night, no matter how tired I was. In fact, there were times I came dangerously close to smacking myself in the face with my Kindle, although it would have been well worth it.
August 23, 2013
Charlie Wesley escapes from a mental institution and the story follows life after escape. I enjoyed the book and the action and troubles that took place. Most of the story line was good and had me interested however the strange glowing hands and supernatural healing powers were never discussed or explained. That part of the story, although integrated in the story line, at times seemed out of place in the overall story.
February 25, 2012
What a shockingly great book to introduce me to the genre of noir fiction! Heath Lowrance captures the characters’ personalities of gritty people in dark, dark places. Charlie, easily influenced, gets involved with the selfish and unholy world of the Reverend Phineas Childe. Passion, hate, love, manipulation, and violence mixed well to create this face-paced novel.
June 27, 2021
So the good bit first: this is an engaging story, you get drawn in to Charlie's life really quickly and I never found that it was boring or felt like it was treading water waiting for something to happen. I got into the griminess of it, nobody is really an innocent in this story. The Reverend is like a character taken straight from a Nick Cave song, I loved every scene he was in...and I enjoyed Charlie as a protagonist.
HOWEVER...I feel like this story could have done with some tighter editing. There are several plot elements that kind of come out of nowhere and take up way too much space for the amount of importance they have to the plot. One example is that there's a subplot running through the novel about why the Mayor of the town does a particular thing and when you finally find out why that is, the payoff is bizarre and irrelevant. There's a supernatural element which is never really explored or explained, barely has any relevance for about 90% of the book and then suddenly becomes a central part of the climax...the climax itself really comes out of one event that happened early on and had nothing to do with most of the characters in the book so it's hard to care too much about it.
I feel like this is ALMOST a good book, it just needs a bit of tightening up. It's mostly still an entertaining read though, which gives it an extra star than I would have given it otherwise.
HOWEVER...I feel like this story could have done with some tighter editing. There are several plot elements that kind of come out of nowhere and take up way too much space for the amount of importance they have to the plot. One example is that there's a subplot running through the novel about why the Mayor of the town does a particular thing and when you finally find out why that is, the payoff is bizarre and irrelevant. There's a supernatural element which is never really explored or explained, barely has any relevance for about 90% of the book and then suddenly becomes a central part of the climax...the climax itself really comes out of one event that happened early on and had nothing to do with most of the characters in the book so it's hard to care too much about it.
I feel like this is ALMOST a good book, it just needs a bit of tightening up. It's mostly still an entertaining read though, which gives it an extra star than I would have given it otherwise.
November 9, 2022
It's the rare few indie books that keep getting talked about years down the line when they're out of print and barely affordable on whatever marketplace you happen to browse, but this melange of crime fiction sub genres has captured many a heart down the years and thus Shotgun Honey have acquired it and released it for a new generation of readers.
Charlie Wesley is left for dead on the streets of Memphis, but finds himself back to life following a stabbing and makes a new friend in Reverend Childe, who invites him to Cuba Landing to work as his assistant where Wesley soon finds himself entangled in the multiple webs of the small town. The book is at once a celebration of old school noir and mysteries while lending itself to more hard-boiled subplots too.
It's a book that was initially difficult for me to pin down in time as it eschews any use of cell phones or pop culture references standing as outside time as some small American towns do, I imagine.
This book is definitely a one of a kind because it throws so much at you, perhaps even too much at times.
Charlie Wesley is left for dead on the streets of Memphis, but finds himself back to life following a stabbing and makes a new friend in Reverend Childe, who invites him to Cuba Landing to work as his assistant where Wesley soon finds himself entangled in the multiple webs of the small town. The book is at once a celebration of old school noir and mysteries while lending itself to more hard-boiled subplots too.
It's a book that was initially difficult for me to pin down in time as it eschews any use of cell phones or pop culture references standing as outside time as some small American towns do, I imagine.
This book is definitely a one of a kind because it throws so much at you, perhaps even too much at times.
April 10, 2019
Excellent
This book grabbed me by the 2nd chapter and I could not put it down till the end. I was surprised, confused, weirded out, hoping for someone to be better than they were, but it just kept jerking me around till the end, and now I am sitting here shocked and confused. But what a terrifying and wondering read it was. I feel like I need to read it again so I can see what I missed. I will tell everyone I know to read it right now!
This book grabbed me by the 2nd chapter and I could not put it down till the end. I was surprised, confused, weirded out, hoping for someone to be better than they were, but it just kept jerking me around till the end, and now I am sitting here shocked and confused. But what a terrifying and wondering read it was. I feel like I need to read it again so I can see what I missed. I will tell everyone I know to read it right now!
September 20, 2017
Charlie finds reality difficult to cope with at the best of times. When he teams up with the self styled preacher of the apocalypse, things get even stranger.
August 23, 2021
I read and enjoyed this book a year or two ago, but never got around to jotting down any thoughts about it. I had conversations with a few people right after I finished, but who knows what happened to them. And people can't remember much of what they said or read, right? Unless you're the dude from The Book of Eli. So I thought a review at this point would be a perfect experiment on what was truly memorable from a particular book I read awhile back, and this review will contain nothing but what I recollect from my initial reading of The Bastard Hand. To make sure I don't cheat, I am holding the book at arm's length right now, under a hand that can't read. Okay, first off, I remember the first line, something about the narrator's "Apocalypse beginning without the fanfare you might expect." Instead he's kicked out of a bar. Which sort of is a tiny Rapture from the bar's point of view if you think about it, if you had been sitting next to him when he was bounced, I mean. Poof! Where'd that dude go? Next, I remember a Preacher. I think I remember hearing the author talk a bit about Preacher on social media, but maybe not. It seems like he would love Garth Ennis' Jesse Custer though. And speaking of "apocalyptic," there's talk of that word being overused these days, and I'd probably agree. For example, the pairing of "zombie" with "apocalypse" makes little sense really, but if you're talking about biblical end-of-the-world shenanigans, it's fair game. And that's what this book was. End-of-the-world stuff. I agree with the Flannery O'Connor comparisons by other reviewers, and Stephen King of course (definitely had their "dark fable" thing going on). I remember there was a hole in a bible, too, and I hoped it was a bullet the whole time I was reading. Other things I recall... I remember the narration undermining the self-seriousness of the plot, but in a good way. It reminded the reader that the man telling the story was always aware how ridiculous some things sounded out loud. The narrator even argues with himself on occasion (I think. No, that was his brother in his head. It's coming back to me now). And the narrator is sort of invincible, which normally annoys me, but here it's good because it simply helps our hero embrace increasingly reckless behavior. I remember the settings well - the road trip and the destination in particular - all vivid, suitably sweaty, and dirty. And there's a crazy preacher that might remind you a bit of Harry Powers from Night of the Hunter. I mean Harry Powell. Powers was the real guy, and Mitchum replaced him (kinda like Reverend Childe replaced that other guy). I remember wondering, "Do people call strangers 'Reverend' just because they see the collar?" This happens in the movies a lot, too. What else... I remember being pretty sure that the cop was named "Oldfield" because of Tubular Bells, a.k.a. the theme from The Exorcist? I remember there being a couple mysteries to solve, and I might have skimmed those, but I remember a big one being, "Will this religious mumbo jumbo and healing powers and glowing hands be revealed as real and not just in his head?" because we had that unreliable narrator and all that. And that question is answered, and depending on how you feel about such things, it may disappoint as quickly as it satisfies. The name "Charlie" was probably a clue though. Oh, yeah, the sermons in this book are infinitely more interesting and scandalous than the ones I remember suffering through as a child. Hell, I'd have stayed in school, er, I mean church, if they were. Other things I remember... there were a half dozen lines highlighted in this book, and I don't remember doing it. I've never highlighted anything in my life, not even in college. So if these highlights came with the book, or they're in every book, now that's a great gimmick. Almost as good as a bullet hole. Make the reader think they're nuts? Freak them out that someone else is reading the book and taking notes (or shots) when you're not around? Anyway, the mystery highlighting was over all the biblical passages, so those glowing yellow lines definitely suited the material.
March 13, 2012
This is a seedy, dirty, book with enough bastards to populate a small town – which they do, Cuba Landing. Heath Lowrance gets disconcertedly into the mind of Charles Wesley, the mentally ill narrator, and takes us to some dark places. We start with muggings in Memphis and end up with beatings, shootings, and … and you’ll have to read it to find out what it escalates too.
Wesley hooks up with a preacher and joins him on a trip to Cuba Landing. The preacher is taking over at the Free Baptist Church there. On first meeting the preacher we know little about him, except he likes smoking and drinking and most of all fucking. In fact he points out that it doesn’t really matter what he’s doing, if he had the option, he’d rather be fucking.
Cuba landing is a small town with all the small town tensions. The women folk like to flirt with the new pastor. And it doesn’t take too long for him to get them into bed. He uses his pulpit to stir up trouble in the town. That trouble sees Wesley being drawn into plots to expose the preacher. Wesley keeps himself occupied by shacking up with the sister of the previous preacher whilst heading up to Memphis to rob crack house with a gang that mugged him early on. All these unlikely events are held together well through a neat, sparse, prose that kept me turning the pages – even when I should have been getting off the bus. Even when I should have been sleeping.
I enjoyed this book from start to finish. There were no lapse in character voice or dialogue which brought me out of it. From the moment I started reading I was locked in. It must have taken a lot of planning and a lot of crafting to write this book – but none of that shows. The text flows with ease, at a good pace, through the sordid, desperate world of Charlie Wesley. I’m looking forward to reading more of his books as soon as he can write them.
Wesley hooks up with a preacher and joins him on a trip to Cuba Landing. The preacher is taking over at the Free Baptist Church there. On first meeting the preacher we know little about him, except he likes smoking and drinking and most of all fucking. In fact he points out that it doesn’t really matter what he’s doing, if he had the option, he’d rather be fucking.
Cuba landing is a small town with all the small town tensions. The women folk like to flirt with the new pastor. And it doesn’t take too long for him to get them into bed. He uses his pulpit to stir up trouble in the town. That trouble sees Wesley being drawn into plots to expose the preacher. Wesley keeps himself occupied by shacking up with the sister of the previous preacher whilst heading up to Memphis to rob crack house with a gang that mugged him early on. All these unlikely events are held together well through a neat, sparse, prose that kept me turning the pages – even when I should have been getting off the bus. Even when I should have been sleeping.
I enjoyed this book from start to finish. There were no lapse in character voice or dialogue which brought me out of it. From the moment I started reading I was locked in. It must have taken a lot of planning and a lot of crafting to write this book – but none of that shows. The text flows with ease, at a good pace, through the sordid, desperate world of Charlie Wesley. I’m looking forward to reading more of his books as soon as he can write them.
July 6, 2012
Heath Lowrance is one of the very best new writers around. Fact. His ability to tell a story and describe a setting is razor sharp and if his stories were a plate of chocolate brownies, you wouldn't stop eating until you were lying sick on the floor, clutching your stomach and pleading for mercy.
The Bastard Hand is first of all a brilliant tale, showing true creativity and imagination. Think of the big blockbuster films you've seen over the last ten years; great effects, make-up, score, acting (sometimes) but...shame about the story. If Hollywood had any sense (very doubtful) Lowrance would be grabbed with both hands, paid a fortune, given whatever creature comforts he desires and told to write. He's that good.
The Bastard Hand is an adventure, a thriller, a romance and has a bucketful of violence that will keep the toughest readers turning the pages. It also has lots of religion, the real fire and brimstone type, and two main characters, the right reverend Phineas Childe and Charlie, whose life changes when he mysteriously finds a bible with a hole shot through it in a laundromat.
The pair team up and head for a small town where the Reverend takes up his new charge, but it soon becomes clear that he's not exactly the type of preacher the congregation had expected and strangely, the bible found by Charlie belonged to the previous incumbent who disappeared under dubious circumstances.
You will be sorry to finish this novel, and you will probably read it in a couple of sittings, due to Lowrance's ability to depict believable characters set in a community of folks that, if you live in a small town, you will recognise.
Great stuff from Lowrance - go read!
The Bastard Hand is first of all a brilliant tale, showing true creativity and imagination. Think of the big blockbuster films you've seen over the last ten years; great effects, make-up, score, acting (sometimes) but...shame about the story. If Hollywood had any sense (very doubtful) Lowrance would be grabbed with both hands, paid a fortune, given whatever creature comforts he desires and told to write. He's that good.
The Bastard Hand is an adventure, a thriller, a romance and has a bucketful of violence that will keep the toughest readers turning the pages. It also has lots of religion, the real fire and brimstone type, and two main characters, the right reverend Phineas Childe and Charlie, whose life changes when he mysteriously finds a bible with a hole shot through it in a laundromat.
The pair team up and head for a small town where the Reverend takes up his new charge, but it soon becomes clear that he's not exactly the type of preacher the congregation had expected and strangely, the bible found by Charlie belonged to the previous incumbent who disappeared under dubious circumstances.
You will be sorry to finish this novel, and you will probably read it in a couple of sittings, due to Lowrance's ability to depict believable characters set in a community of folks that, if you live in a small town, you will recognise.
Great stuff from Lowrance - go read!
August 31, 2017
Wow! GREAT book!! Now I know why this is called "the cult novel THE BASTARD HAND".... I wanted to read it again as soon as I was finished!!
This was definitely a change of pace from my usual urban fantasy fare, and a new author for me, but with all his books getting rave reviews, thought I'd check this out. I didn't know what to expect, but from the beginning I was hooked.... It's like the train wreck you can't turn away from...... Great story, pace, and a writing style that flows seamlessly. It's both beautiful & brutal, but with such well placed humor, a few times I laughed harder than I think I ever have while reading a book.
But this is a dark and twisty tale, saturated with Southern flavor....the feel of a dark, modern day 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou' (one of my favorite movies!) but instead of 3 escaped convicts, you have one escaped mental patient and a charismatic, but wicked Southern preacher with an agenda. A lot of bible-thumping as they're always looking over their shoulder.
Charlie, the escaped mental patient, and the charming but hypocritical Reverend Childe meet, befriend each other and the adventure/train wreck begins. Many times I questioned who the real mental patient was. As the tale unfolds we find that poor Charlie ("I left my dignity behind, but what the hell, I almost never used it anyway") has a unique and yes, supernatural gift/curse. He's also preyed upon by those that want to use him. But this story takes many twists and turns.
This book will keep you turning the pages - its got it all & I HIGHLY recommend!! I'm on to my next Heath Lowrance book ("That Damned Coyote Hill"...free at Amazon today!)
This was definitely a change of pace from my usual urban fantasy fare, and a new author for me, but with all his books getting rave reviews, thought I'd check this out. I didn't know what to expect, but from the beginning I was hooked.... It's like the train wreck you can't turn away from...... Great story, pace, and a writing style that flows seamlessly. It's both beautiful & brutal, but with such well placed humor, a few times I laughed harder than I think I ever have while reading a book.
But this is a dark and twisty tale, saturated with Southern flavor....the feel of a dark, modern day 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou' (one of my favorite movies!) but instead of 3 escaped convicts, you have one escaped mental patient and a charismatic, but wicked Southern preacher with an agenda. A lot of bible-thumping as they're always looking over their shoulder.
Charlie, the escaped mental patient, and the charming but hypocritical Reverend Childe meet, befriend each other and the adventure/train wreck begins. Many times I questioned who the real mental patient was. As the tale unfolds we find that poor Charlie ("I left my dignity behind, but what the hell, I almost never used it anyway") has a unique and yes, supernatural gift/curse. He's also preyed upon by those that want to use him. But this story takes many twists and turns.
This book will keep you turning the pages - its got it all & I HIGHLY recommend!! I'm on to my next Heath Lowrance book ("That Damned Coyote Hill"...free at Amazon today!)
October 19, 2012
Heath Lowrance $4.99 on Kindle *****
Any time a book by an unfamiliar author starts out this good, I begin to worry about two things: can he sustain this level of writing; and can he answer the promise he’s making as to the plot.
After I’d read five or so chapters, I tore myself away long enough to go on-line and see if Heath Lowrance has written any other books. He has. I bought it.
(Key word there: bought. If you’ve read my other reviews, you know I don’t buy. I troll the Kindle freebies (Kinlib.com) looking for talented but unknown authors. (Although The Bastard Hand is normally $4.99, I happened to troll the freebies on a day when it was being offered free.)
The second book was only $.99, but it’s the principle of the thing. Also, you add up enough $.99’s, and pretty soon you’ve got $eleventy sixty-four or something.)
The Bastard Hand is dark, funny, fresh, and surprising. Charlie Wesley, the narrator/protagonist, is troubled, mysterious, charismatic, and funny. The Reverend rings so true he creeped me out. And the supporting cast of characters all do their jobs admirably.
The plot ventures into strange waters, but it’s so well done that it carried me (and my middle name is Skeptical) right along with it.
What an amazing book. I rarely award five stars, but this book deserves every one of them. It’s definitely not for the straight-laced, but everybody else will probably love it.
Any time a book by an unfamiliar author starts out this good, I begin to worry about two things: can he sustain this level of writing; and can he answer the promise he’s making as to the plot.
After I’d read five or so chapters, I tore myself away long enough to go on-line and see if Heath Lowrance has written any other books. He has. I bought it.
(Key word there: bought. If you’ve read my other reviews, you know I don’t buy. I troll the Kindle freebies (Kinlib.com) looking for talented but unknown authors. (Although The Bastard Hand is normally $4.99, I happened to troll the freebies on a day when it was being offered free.)
The second book was only $.99, but it’s the principle of the thing. Also, you add up enough $.99’s, and pretty soon you’ve got $eleventy sixty-four or something.)
The Bastard Hand is dark, funny, fresh, and surprising. Charlie Wesley, the narrator/protagonist, is troubled, mysterious, charismatic, and funny. The Reverend rings so true he creeped me out. And the supporting cast of characters all do their jobs admirably.
The plot ventures into strange waters, but it’s so well done that it carried me (and my middle name is Skeptical) right along with it.
What an amazing book. I rarely award five stars, but this book deserves every one of them. It’s definitely not for the straight-laced, but everybody else will probably love it.
February 4, 2013
The writing is good and the prose flows along evenly without those annoying grammatical and formatting errors that are becoming so common. The characterisation of both Charlie and the Reverend are solid and we get a good feel for both although not their motives.
The reason this isn't a five star read is that there are too many inconsistencies and the whole thing doesn't hold comfortably together for me. For example:
Charlie survives a stabbing and being shot through the neck and throat almost instantly healing but suffers from toothache and cuts his hand on a bottle and they aren't healed.
He joins with Tassie in the assault and robbery without a second thought because he wants money, but when we first meet him he is a year out of Washington and still basically a bum.
His dead brother Kyle's role seemed vague.
The reverend's role of retribution and his actions in general have little logic.
The Jathed story which is the reason for the reverend's actions is ill-developed and thin.
There is no explanation for glowing hands or the fact that the reverend's touch removes Charlie's power. The explanation can be obscure, bizarre, weird but there ought to be one because it is totally unsatisfactory to pull such occurrences out of the air.
The quality of the writing saves this dodgily shaped tale (be it noir or pulp) from three stars.
The reason this isn't a five star read is that there are too many inconsistencies and the whole thing doesn't hold comfortably together for me. For example:
Charlie survives a stabbing and being shot through the neck and throat almost instantly healing but suffers from toothache and cuts his hand on a bottle and they aren't healed.
He joins with Tassie in the assault and robbery without a second thought because he wants money, but when we first meet him he is a year out of Washington and still basically a bum.
His dead brother Kyle's role seemed vague.
The reverend's role of retribution and his actions in general have little logic.
The Jathed story which is the reason for the reverend's actions is ill-developed and thin.
There is no explanation for glowing hands or the fact that the reverend's touch removes Charlie's power. The explanation can be obscure, bizarre, weird but there ought to be one because it is totally unsatisfactory to pull such occurrences out of the air.
The quality of the writing saves this dodgily shaped tale (be it noir or pulp) from three stars.
June 19, 2012
Helluva book!!Enjoyed it thoroughly.Charlie Wesley has escaped from a mental institution and is headed for Florida. On his journey he befriends an eccentric minister of church, who persuades him to go to Cuba Landing. Charlie agrees without knowing what lies ahead of him and what is the hidden agenda of minister for going to Cuba Landing. The novel is full of interesting characters like Charlie Wesley, the protagonist who hears his dead bother talking to him and also appears to possess some supernatural powers in his hand which make him invincible and capable of delivering fatal injuries to his adversaries.Then there is the reverend Phineas Childe who is minister but has weakness for liquor and women. Apart from these two there is a Tassie whose talents include planning heists on crack dealers and mugging people .These characters are what makes novel a fast paced action which you like to devour in a single sitting.
March 5, 2014
This was an interesting book. When I first started reading, I thought it would be about a charismatic reverend who would manipulate a man, who was not all there, into doing things that he should not be doing. Boy was I wrong. While the reverend is not a good man, he isn't pure evil either. Charlie, the protagonist, is a few bricks short of a load. He makes dangerous, impulsive decisions and puts himself in danger many times. Then there's his unexplained power. At first I thought he might be imagining it, but others were witnessing it too. Maybe we are supposed to believe he is a chosen one, meant to find the reverend and put an end to his sinful ways. The author never really makes this clear. I thought the ending would be more explosive. While it is solid and satisfying, I expected more of a bang. There is a mystery element to this book. It is solved at the end of the novel, however I think most readers will see the solution far before it is revealed in the story.
February 5, 2017
Where to start? This book was amazingly awesome! Written in first person, readers ride around in Charlie’s head as he meets the crazy cast of characters, gains a superpower, and just maybe finds religion. The book takes place in Mississippi and the author brings the South to life through southern dialect and realistic descriptions of small town life in the Bible Belt. Good old southern religion has never been so fun or so dark!
The only thing that really threw me for a bit of a loop was the magic hand. Maybe I missed it but other than being, as Disturbed would say, “the hand of God, the dark Messiah”, I’m not sure what the point of the magic power was other than to add a piping hot plot twist.
Overall a fantastic read that I give 9 paws out of 10! I can’t wait to read more by Lowrance, and if you are into noir, mystery, or crime I highly recommend you pick up this free ebook from amazon!
The only thing that really threw me for a bit of a loop was the magic hand. Maybe I missed it but other than being, as Disturbed would say, “the hand of God, the dark Messiah”, I’m not sure what the point of the magic power was other than to add a piping hot plot twist.
Overall a fantastic read that I give 9 paws out of 10! I can’t wait to read more by Lowrance, and if you are into noir, mystery, or crime I highly recommend you pick up this free ebook from amazon!
January 1, 2013
Awesome, spectacular, brilliant, phenomenal. There aren't enough adjectives to describe how good this book is. If you jike pulp and noir just a tiny bit, this book will keep you spellbound. I couldn't put it down, couldn't wait to read the next unsuspecting twist, couldn't wait until the next page. Wow, what a great read. It had some elements that were unique to my style if reading, but it was a fresh and wonderful change for the normal mystery, crime, et al., saga for me. Bravo, Heath.
April 17, 2014
Fantastic debut from a very talented writer. The book is a call back to the noir titles of author's like Jim Thompson, and I was reminded of After Dark, My Sweet when reading about Charlie's back story. Also shades of Willeford in his treatment and creation of the Right Reverend Childe. Multilayered and intricately plotted, well developed mystery and supernatural elements blended perfectly. Bastard Hand delivers on every level.
June 13, 2013
It's violent and funny and twisted -- if you like that sort of thing...and I do, especially when it's handled with this kind of skill. I think a lot of the comparisons drawn here are valid, but I'll add another one: The Rev. Childe makes Elmer Gantry look like a Boy Scout. That's just one aspect of this audacious work, though.
August 3, 2014
Wow!
As an initial warning: this book is racy pretty much throughout. However, the mood, theme, plot twists, motivations, etc., were superbly executed. It's definitely my top 5 in books with both genius creativity and story execution. Do not read it if you don't like sacrilegious themes or cult style suspense. And yes, it is interesting the whole book through.
As an initial warning: this book is racy pretty much throughout. However, the mood, theme, plot twists, motivations, etc., were superbly executed. It's definitely my top 5 in books with both genius creativity and story execution. Do not read it if you don't like sacrilegious themes or cult style suspense. And yes, it is interesting the whole book through.
July 6, 2016
A story that kept me interested, even though the supernatural aspect put me off a bit. Well developed characters and a decent story line, but in the end, you never knew just what the preacher has in mind for the town. It left me wanting more.
July 1, 2012
Excellent book . Great author
November 17, 2012
Intriguing book took me a good while to get into the story but once I got into the story I enjoyed it
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