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.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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
