We're celebrating the release of Boston Teran's revisionist western novel, Crippled Jack. Read on for more info and a sneak peek!
Crippled Jack by Boston Teran
Crippled Jack
Publication Date: September 5th, 2022
Genre: Revisionist Western/ Historical Fiction
Synopsis:
CRIPPLED JACK is a revisionist western set against a landmark era in American folklore. Those were the years of poverty, homelessness and hatred between the classes.
In that time when bloodthirsty violence ruled the day a boy was bound and gagged and left to die in the desert. He was not yet nine and suffered what they called the palsy. There was a note pinned to his chest – It’s up to God now.
But the boy did not die. Fate and history merged in his will to live. He was found by a horseman who was at war with the profiteers of the day, the Czars of business, the masters of corporate avarice. He was known as – The Coffin Maker.
He became the star on the boy’s horizon. The boy would grow to become an expert marksman known as Crippled Jack. He will come of age during the labor wars that were consuming the West. His friends will be enemies of the state. He will come to love a woman who has escaped the orphan trains and is a reporter covering the bloodshed sweeping the nation.
Together they will usher in a new America. An America that has every intention of turning the country upside down, so that it may stand right side up.
CRIPPLED JACK transforms the classic American western into a scathing and violent protest novel. A war for social justice, for equality, and for hope – a war we’re still fighting today.
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Review:
As someone who does not often read western novels, I was pleasantly surprised to find Crippled Jack as a new reason to dive into this genre more. This is a western, but with a twist and I think all of you will be in for the read of your lives.
Crippled Jack stars The Coffin Maker and he is determined to change the way the world is running. I thoroughly enjoyed his character as the plot thickened. Readers who love to witness a major change in a novel will surely love this one.
The writing drew me in and I was suddenly transported to this different America. Boston Teran knows what they are doing in writing this novel and I hope to read more of their work in the future.
Chapter One
What tortures await the lives of men? What degree of exile from goodness makes up their souls?
The boy was near about eight, maybe nine years old. His hands and feet had been bound up with heavy rope. His mouth lashed tight with cot- ton strips so he could not cry out.
He was lying just off the Chihuahua Trail where it fed south from San Antonio toward Helena. He had been placed on the most degraded soil, by the remains of a rotted wagon and the sanded-down bones of an ox. A page from the Bible had been torn loose and pinned to his ragged and filthy shirt. And in a fine handwriting was written this:
— It’s up to God now —
...
For days the boy survived on his muffled cries and desperation to stay alive as he caterpillared along, his arms tied behind his back, a thing to behold, crawling inch by inch over rock and gray brown and scrub brush that scored the flesh. Threading down through gullies, his skin blistered, courtesy of the hideous Texas sun. He used his jaw and shoulders and the bottom of his bare bound feet to edge toward a road that grew farther and farther out of reach, until there was no more of him to struggle with.
He lay there alone, awaiting death, in all that unmerciful emptiness with one thought—Why did God hate me so much?
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About the Author:
For a generation now, the internationally award-winning author Boston Teran has been writing about America and the moral territory of its soul. Many of his novels are translated into foreign languages, and he has been named alongside great American writers, including Hemingway and Larry McMurtry, filmmakers John Ford and Sam Peckinpah, as well as renowned painters and artists for his far reaching vision of time, place and humanity.
His cult novel, GOD IS A BULLET, was adapted to film in 2021 by Nick Cassavetes, and has been compared to such seminal works as Joan Didion’s THE WHITE ALBUM and John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS. NEVER COUNT OUT THE DEAD has been called a modern equivalent of Macbeth. THE CREED OF VIOLENCE is currently in film development with Universal Studios. His DEFIANT AMERICANS SERIES have been praised for confronting an America mired in hatred and human corruption, injustice, racism and inequality, and his characters’ quest for moral order and redemption.
The author has won countless awards, including The American Fiction Award for “Adventure: Historical,” the GRAND PRIX CALIBRE 38, the Stephen Crane Literary Award for “First Fiction,” the Fiction Lovers Association of Japan Award for “Best Novel,” the Benjamin Franklin Award in the LGBTQ+ category, and the John Creasey Award for “Best Novel” by the British Crime Writers Association.
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Thanks for such a nice review and taking a chance on something new for you :)