What drives a small town in New England in the late 1920s to lynch a man? Immigrant Nick DeCosta’s skill as a wine grower makes him a fortune as a moonshiner and puts him at odds with the ’shine sales of the MacKay clan, even though he’s wed to their wild youngest daughter. Is this the real reason he is lynched? And who is the second corpse in the woods?
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Set in 1929, Randall's uneven debut explores anti-immigrant prejudice in a small rural New England community. When Angus MacKay catches his precocious young cousin, Jackie Sue, getting intimate with teenager Angus DeCosta in the bushes, the MacKay menfolk first beat and strip DeCosta, then throw him off a bridge into a river. DeCosta's father arrives in time to fire some birdshot at the MacKays and rescue his battered son. Various human narrators relate the story of the violent aftermath of this incident, including a corrupt local lawman, Marshal Ichabod Lawe. Late in the action the author adds a jarring fantasy element—the voices of Chief, a dog, and Kaw, a crow. Some readers may wonder why Chief speaks in simple, primitive sentences (Chief push man-pups, Chief bark), while Kaw can imagine he'd make a better god than Bright-Eye, i.e., the sun. While Randall succeeds in educating the reader about the role of the Ku Klux Klan in the Northeast during this period, the unsophisticated story line and thin characterizations don't do justice to the important history lesson. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
In rural western Massachusetts in 1929, 13-year-old Jackie Sue MacKay and Angus DeCosta, a boy from the next county over, are caught in a compromising situation. Her cousins take the boy, beat him up, and toss him off a bridge. He survives, but Big Bill Sykes, the local prosecutor with statewide ambition, decides to charge the MacKay cousins with attempted murder. By the letter of the law, it might be the right thing to do, but he doesn’t understand the forces he’s unleashing. The MacKay and DeCosta families are rival bootleggers. The MacKays are also linked to the very active Ku Klux Klan; the DeCostas are Catholic immigrants and symbolize the core fears of the Klan. Sykes manipulates the ethnic tension but eventually loses control. The story is told from a half-dozen perspectives including Jackie, Sykes, various MacKays, a few locals, and even the police chief’s dog. It’s a suspenseful, well-written Rashomon-like novel diminished only by the ridiculous inclusion of the dog’s voice. Still, this is a solid country noir that will appeal to devotees waiting for the next Daniel Woodrell novel. --Wes Lukowsky
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Multiple POV Mystery, Wow, Wow, Wow,
This review is from: Blood Harvest (Hardcover)
A compelling tale told from various POVs, pulling you deeper and deeper into the story as each character reveals more clues to why Nick DeCosta was hanged in the woods near this small New England town. There is a history lesson here, told in such a way, you think that maybe your history teacher forgot to mention a few facts way back when.
Fascinating, too, are the characters you meet in this rural town. Marshal Lawe, the marshal of Peony Springs, short on education, but he makes up for it in orneriness. Then there's Bill Sykes, the wheeler-dealer prosecuting attorney who thinks he can finagle his way into the governor's office by inciting a riot and then being the one to squash it. But that only works if everybody is playing your game. Of course Jackie Sue, the headstrong young girl who leads men and boys astray and causes her own riot in town, adds heat to this smoldering pot. But my favorite characters are Chief and Kaw. Chief reminded me of the Mechanical Hound in Fahrenheit 451, except this one is real and has personality. You get inside his head and it's a hoot. Kaw is another off-the-wall character, this time a crow whose speech pattern captures the black heart of that diabolical fowl. Over all, this was a terrific read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superbly crafted debut,
By
This review is from: Blood Harvest (Hardcover)
What drives a New England town in 1928 to lynch a man?
Nick DeCosta embodies the immigrant success story. His skill as a wine grower makes him a fortune as a moonshiner during Prohibition. It puts him at odds with the `shine sales of the MacKay clan, even though he's wed to their wild youngest daughter. Is that the real reason he is lynched? And why is there a second corpse in the woods? With this set-up it's hard to know what to expect from this first novel by Brant Randall. What I didn't expect was a stunning, unique story of family feuds and bigotry in small town New England. Or a shocking tale so eloquently told, by not one central point of view character, but nine - all integral to the story and each telling it from their own perspective. While some might be put off by the first-person narrative from so many different characters, the unusual technique is what makes this book so effective. Randall's style is fluid, mesmerizing, and compelling, lush in history and sparse on setting. He purposely spares detail in the surroundings, placing focus instead on the account of events as told by those who lived them, providing an intimate look into the lives of the townspeople and the dynamics of their relationships. Each voice rings so true to its own nature that you can hear each character putting his/her/its own spin on the retelling of events, fitting a few pieces at a time into the larger puzzle until the complete picture is sitting before you in all its deeply rich - if unsettling - glory. Brant Randall has set the bar high with this superbly crafted debut.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A complicated story of kinship,
By Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Blood Harvest (Hardcover)
In this historical mystery, Marshall Lawe is a marshall in Peony Springs, located in New England. Marshall Lawe's dialogue starts you on the journey through the events that occurred in Peony Springs, which culminated in the death of Nick DeCosta at the hands of the Klu Klux Klan. The Klan had been after Nick years earlier when he eloped with Mary Elizabeth MacKay. Mary Elizabeth rescued Nick, the couple made it across the county line, and there they stayed.
Mary and Nick had a boy that they named Angus after Mary Elizabeth's father, but the breach between the families never healed. When Angus DeCosta reached the age of fifteen, he decided to cross the county line. Angus showed up at a church social and got in some trouble with Jackie Sue Palmer. Jackie Sue was a wild 13-year-old girl with visions of becoming a movie star. Angus MacKay, Jackie Sue's cousin, broke up the two who were snuggling and then things went downhill from there. All of the commotion caused by this one incident brought about two trials. One trial was held in the home county of Angus DeCosta and one in the home county of Angus MacKay. You become acquainted with the local residents thorough their telling of their story. Even Chief, Marshall Lawe's dog, tells his side. Nick DeCosta is indeed hanged by the Klan. The militia comes in to break up the gathering but Nick is not the only victim in this story. Brant Randall (a.k.a. Bruce Cook) has written a very interesting and engrossing tale of the times in New England in 1928. I loved all the characters and their stories of happiness and sorrow. Randall tells a complicated story in a way that you feel a kinship with the characters. I was very surprised to learn that the Klan targeted Italians. The Klan was very active in New England in the 1920s. The author revealed facts in our history that were new to me. Armchair Interviews says: You will be both entertained and educated in this excellent tale.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
