Red Grass River: A Legend [Paperback]

James Carlos Blake (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2000

James Carlos Blake is a masterful chronicler of the restless, outcast, the lawless, and the lonelyheart. His previous novel, In the Rogue Blood, was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. Now he has written a powerful and rousing historical saga of family loyalties, blood feuds, and betrayed friendships; of bank robberies and bootlegging; and of a passionate love as wild at heart as the Everglades. It is the story of sworn enemies: John Ashley, a criminal and folk hero, the brightest star in a family destined to become the most notorious in south Florida; and Bobby Baker, a lawman born of lawmen, a violent, hard-hearted man driven by the searing memory of past affronts and the enduring hatreds the engendered. Ashley and Maker will clash many times over many decades. And as the twentieth century encroaches on their world—and the wildlands give grudging way to the rising boomtown of Miami—a feral, sensual mating will place one man in gravest peril...while his adversary contrives a dark, personal vengeance that could leave countless lives—his own included—in ruin.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Evoking the primal extravagance of the vanished South Florida wilderness, L.A. Times Book Prize-winner Blake (In the Rogue Blood) offers up a spellbinding tale of an outlaw, the scion of a family gang, and his exploits in the first quarter of the century, narrated by an old man who knew the hero from an admiring distance. In 1911, delivering whiskey for his bootlegger father, 18-year-old John Ashley kills a drunken Indian in self-defense and is forced to become a fugitive, partly because of a romantic rivalry with the sheriff's son. After he flees to Texas, boredom, more than necessity, prods Ashley to rob a bank, and he returns to Florida flush with cash. In and out of jails and prison over a short span of years, young Ashley becomes Florida's most famous outlaw. Serving a 17-year sentence at the beginning of WWI, he escapes and resumes his exploits as a hard-drinking, whore-hopping rum runner and bank robber. Inevitably, he is dealt a long overdue, but not unwelcome, comeuppance when he falls head over heels in love with a beautiful swamp Amazon who is more than his match. This outlaw family saga is set against the infamous development and despoilation of the Everglades as papa Joe fights off the local law and the Chicago mob's invasion of the rich bootleg liquor market. Family loyalties, feral mysticism and the inexorable erosion of a way of life are grandly imagined in this vivid saga of a freewheeling past. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Blake, whose previous novel, In the Rogue Blood, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, proves again to be a master at detailing the life of the desperado. He now tells a story, set in the early 1900s, of a family of violent outcasts. The Ashley clan is busy pursuing a life of crime and hiding out in the dank Florida Everglades. Considered untouchable by local law enforcement officers because of their deadly reputation and because it is impossible to find them in the jungle-like islands of the Everglades, they soon earn the enmity of the local sheriff. After young John Ashley kills a man in a drunken fight, the family is relentlessly pursued by the sheriff. Blake tells of two decades in the life of this family as John Ashley evades capture and goes from petty criminal to bank robber and rum runner. An explosive climax occurs when Ashley gets mixed up with the Chicago Mob, which is secretly working with the sheriff. A great story: well written, fast paced, racy, enthralling, and full of surprises. Readers can't help but enjoy. Kathleen Hughes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (July 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380792427
• ISBN-13: 978-0380792429
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars non-stop action in prohibition-era florida, September 20, 2002

By 

Michael W. Kennedy "insane book lover" (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Red Grass River: A Legend (Paperback)

You could say I've been lost in the Florida everglades for the past few years but it's always a pleasure to discover a new author that one enjoys reading, even belatedly, and James Carlos Blake is such an author for me. His novel, Red Grass River, comes at you like a runaway freight train with non-stop action. There are fist-fights, knifings, stompings, gun battles, stalkings, bank robberies, truck robberies, smuggling and even some steamy sex for good measure. The shotgun and the BAR seem favorite weapons in Blakes's prohibition-era Florida. We watch the tenacious Ashley gang thrive and survive as bootleggers, bank robbers and rum runners. They are as good with the ladies as well as their fists and, as such, incur the emnity of the Bakers, a family of tough lawmen, in a decade-long feud. The reader is soaked in the atmosphere of Florida from 1911 to 1924. You can hear the mosquitoes buzzing in your ears, feel the sweat pouring off your skin, see the gators waiting in the swamp grass. People refer to Blake as as writer of historical fiction and certainly Red Grass River makes another time and place come alive. Girls, this is a great guy book and would make the kind of gift the manly man or would-be manly man in your life will appreciate. I give this one four gators out of five.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Violent splendor, February 18, 2001

By 

"harlansy" (Springfield, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Grass River: A Legend (Paperback)

Wow - If you like gritty historical fiction with a decidedly violent bent, this is for you. I've never written one of these reviews before, but felt compelled to. Blake's imagery is stunning, making the everglades come alive and drawing an astonishing picture of a tight-knit family of moonshiners, bootleggers, bank robbers and killers in early 20th century Florida, near the site where Miami is being carved from the swamp. The period details are great, and they blend seemlessly with the truly outstanding story. One of those rare books where both the plot and the writing are top notch. Can't wait to read Blake's other books.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Got Florida, December 13, 2004

By 

John J. BAIN (Staunton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Red Grass River: A Legend (Paperback)

This is an excellent example of Blake's ability to spin a yarn mixing fact and probability to take a reader on a fantastic journey of surprise, shock, adventure, history, fact and a bit of fiction to glue it all together. This non-stop thrill ride takes you throughout Florida in the days when it was easy to get lost ten miles from the center of any city. In the centers of any of these cities it was easy to get away with murder or be murdered. Ride the highways, the swamps, the backroads; even the bounding main running rum. Keep your weapon handy, you'll need it.