Hard Winter: A Western Story (Thorndike Western I) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Johnny D. Boggs (Author)

Book Description

Series: Thorndike Western I | Publication Date: March 17, 2010

Weather and creaking joints permitting, Jim Hawkins could be found every weekend sitting in the rocker outside the Manix store, whittling and spitting. Jim said hardly anything. Ever. That's how Henry Lancaster felt. Sure, he'd hear his grandfather talk to his grandmother fairly often -- But Jim hardly said anything to anybody else. That all changed when he took Henry along on a scouting trip, and told his grandson how it was that winter of 1886 -- a really hard winter.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With hardly a shot fired, Spur Award–winner Boggs delivers one of his best westerns. Jim Hawkins tells his grandson about his wild days as a teenage cowboy, riding with Tommy O'Hallahan and their mentor, John Henry Kenton. The three pards begin cowboying in Texas and make their way north to Montana, ending up working on the big cattle spread of William MacDunn. Kenton, however, goes to work for Tristram Gow, a MacDunn rival whose competition is close to erupting into a range war. As tensions simmer, Jim and Tommy are smitten by MacDunn's daughter, Lainie, but it is the brutal winter that gets top billing in this exciting tale. Snows deepen, winds howl and temperatures plummet, killing cattle and cowboys alike. Add a train derailment, feuds, a missing woman and a hard-case gunman wearing a lawman's badge, and Boggs has produced a tender and suspenseful western that doesn't need to rely on gun smoke. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

The prolific Boggs turns in another solid western. Jim Hawkins was a young boy when he ran away from his home in Indiana. He drifted down to Texas, where he made a couple of friends, a boy his own age and another who was “a good deal” older. Jim’s life changed when he and his friends hired on as wagon haulers and wound up in Montana, where a girl came between Jim and his friend Tommy, who would soon sustain a disfiguring injury and head out on his own. But the two friends eventually reunite, in what Jim recalls as the hardest winter of his life (the book is framed as a story told by the much older Jim to his grandson). The book moves a bit slowly—Boggs takes a long time to get to the meat of the story—but the characters are well drawn and engaging, and the final section, in which Jim risks his own life to save that of a friend, is gripping. Recommended particularly for western readers who prefer character development over action. --David Pitt --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; Lrg edition (March 17, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1410423530
• ISBN-13: 978-1410423535
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,218,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New Western Fan, July 31, 2010

By 

Amy L. Librant (Iowa City, Iowa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hard Winter (Five Star Western Series) (Kindle Edition)

This is the first Western novel I've ever read...and I have to say I'm hooked. Boggs is a great story teller. I read this book over the course of a day. I just couldn't put it down. I look forward to reading Boggs' other Westerns.