Customer Reviews

The Freshour Cylinders

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What a fine book The Freshour Cylinders is! It was the kind of reading experience that peopled my daydreams and nightdreams with vivid characters in exquisite detail. I felt like a time-traveller, transported to an exotic location, immersed in a time and place that, before this book, had little clarity to me. I have nothing but praise for this book -- it was thoroughly enjoyable and having to put it down put me in a bad mood. It's a book to savor for its splendid characters, dead-on dialogue, cinemascope descriptions of place and atmosphere, and driving plot. It's the kind of unbelieveable story that becomes completely believeable in the expert telling. I couldn't predict where I was being taken, like being driven through the Winding Stair Mountains in heavy fog, and I was thankful that a writer with unerring skill was at the wheel. Speer Morgan has an unfailing and incredible sense of historical accuracy. I was completely convinced that these characters were real. In addition to the pleasures of pure storytelling and exotic place, Freshour provided an even deeper satisfaction. It's such a powerful and harrowing book about the past: about the way our cultural past affects us collectively and the way we are each affected by our individual past. Tom Freshour, being half white, half Indian, is such a good character for this unfolding. And what a stunning indictment of white greed and American justice!

This book is entertaining, well-written, informative, well-plotted, sexy, and with an intrigueing cast of characters. As an anthropologist who once lived in Oklahoma, I appreciate how well it captures both the ethos of the area, and the issues of contemporary cultural interactions and archaeology that it deals with. In addition to all this, one of the best things about The Freshour Cylinders is the author's gentle and perceptive portrayals of human, especially male/female, interaction. It is rare to find a book that is so enjoyable on so many levels. It's fun to share a good thing: I want this book to be read.

The Freshour Cylinders by Speer Morgan is an exciting and authentic picture of western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma in the thirties. It combines authentic information about the famous Spiro Indian Mounds with a suspenseful story about murder, love, and the Native American experience in "Indian Territory." It is as gripping a thriller as you'll find on the shelves, and it has the added attraction of believable characters and an unusually keen sense of place and time.

Speer Morgan's latest novel, The Freshour Cylinders, is an engaging combination of edge-of-your-seat mystery and historical drama. The novel is set in 1930s Arkansas and Oklahoma and traces the tribulations of Tom Freshour (who some may remember as the strong and silent orphan from The Whipping Boy) as he tries to discover why people who are involved with a local Indian burial mound are turning up dead. Morgan's characters, from the dashing Tom to the sexy Rainy to the contrary office typewriter which has a habit of jumping off the desk, are so lovingly detailed that they are often simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking. It is this wealth of engaging characters as much as the twists and turns of the plot that will keep you reading.

Tom Freshour is still as strong and stoic as he was in The Whipping Boy but has gained that wry recklessness that turns action heros into legends. His steamy romance with Rainy and his forays into the mystery that involves both of them resurrect old ghosts so that Tom is not only forced to play detective but must also confront questions about his own heritage. As the mystery barrels along, Morgan manages to infuse the novel with a good dose of fascinating history and intriguing psychological conflict. This is a beautifully written story of a man struggling with issues that have violently leapt from the personal to the political while navigating the astonishing events that are piling up around him. You won't be able to put this book down.

In Depression-era Fort Smith, Arkansas, a part-Indian prosecutor becomes involved in stopping the mining and sale of artifacts from the Spiro Mounds, the Oklahoma site of an abandoned pre-Columbian civilization. Murder, racism, intimidation, and a basic lawlessness in the area, especially among the legal professions, are memorably portrayed in this literary mystery, which draws heavily on the actual history of the Mounds, which were largely stripped of their contents by licensed miners before the government stepped in with a preservation plan. Just as vividly drawn are the lives of people struggling to survive against sand storms, desperation, and hate. The main character, Tom Freshour, was featured in the author's earlier "Whipping Boy", which is set during Tom's teen years at an abusive Indian orphanage. This was a wonderful find and an inexpensive ebook (Amazon, B&N, etc.), but it is also available in physical formats.

Speer Morgan has created a well-balanced novel; the plot is intense, the characters are well-fleshed out and the writing is superb. This is a book that one will give a repeat-read. It has all the essentials of entertainment as well as a beautiful display of history. Morgan's sense of place is extraordinary.

This is the first book I have read by Spear Morgan. I felt connected with the characters in his novel, as if I was there. I ejoyed the excitement of the mystery and danger. It is full of plot twists and turns, which keeps the reader inspired.

Halfway through the book it became very suspenseful, a page turner. I just couldn't stop reading. I was even late for my Thanksgiving dinner at a friends house.

Thank you for the excellent ending. There is nothing more frustrating than a good book with an unsatisfying ending. I'm looking forward to reading more of Spear Morgans books.

Buy it, you will love the adventure he takes you on.

I bought this book because it was getting such good reviews and because I love a good mystery. I couldn't put it down. In fact, the historical stuff was so interesting that I went to the library to learn more about that time period. I recommend this book for anyone who loves historical thrillers.

I normally don't like mysteries that much, but Cylinders lured me in because it's also a serious piece of literature. I grew up around the Arkansas/Oklahoma state line, and the description of that area is perfect. I loaned it to a friend, and he immediately liked it as well--and he's a tough critic. You won't be disappointed with this book.

Speer Morgan's latest novel, The Freshour Cylinders is the most captivating book I've read in a long time. It's an edge-of-your-seat mystery that includes a steamy romance and a great deal of fascinating history. All of the characters, from the protagonist, Tom Freshour (who some may remember as the strong silent orphan in The Whipping Boy) to the malfunctioning typewriter with a propensity for throwing itself off the desk are so skillfully detailed that they are simultaneously humorous and heartbreaking.

Tom Freshour is still strong and somewhat stoic in this book but has acquired an edge of that wry recklessness that tranforms action hero into legend. In this intriguing account of a newly discovered Indian burial mound and the murders that surround it, Morgan plunges us into the gripping history of 1930's Arkansas and Oklahoma and the drama of Freshour's own struggles with old ghosts and new challenges. Beyond the pleasure of a smart mystery, The Freshour Cylinders offers a moving story a man dealing with problems that span the personal and the political. You won't be able to put it down!