From Publishers Weekly
Estleman ( Bloody Season ) sets this western adaptation of Treasure Island 20 years after the Civil War in Panhandle, Okla., where 13-year-old David Grayle's mother owns a boardinghouse. A strange visitor, Jotham Flynn, fresh out of jail, has come to tell his story to Judge Blod, a writer of dime novels and a boarder at the Grayle home. As it turns out, Flynn has a treasure map that leads to a fortune in gold stolen from the Union Army back in '63 by Quantrill's Raiders, a band of outlaws. Flynn is murdered by a passel of persons unknown, the map falls into David's hands and Judge Blod, David and David's schoolteacher, ex-Union officer Henry Knox, decide to mount an expedition to the Dakota Badlands to recover the gold. In order to recruit firepower (much of Dakota is held by hostile Sioux), the three hire Ben Wedlock, unaware unlock his cohorts Little do they know that he's "Black Ben," Flynn's arch foe, and that most of his cohorts the men he hires are ex-Raiders. Punctiliously true to Stevenson's classic in tone and plot, this brisk and very entertaining version offers some great transatlanticisms, from the songs the bad guys sing to the dubious past and the fate of a Missouri-bred Long John Silver.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From School Library Journal
YA-- It's 1890, and 13-year-old David Grayle is mighty afraid that the Wild West has passed him by. Little does he know that Judge Constantine Blod, one of his mother's boarders, will set off a chain of events that will lead to an adventure beyond his wildest dreams. Blod, a writer, had arranged to interview Jotham Flynn, an old Rebel soldier and Quantrill Raider just out of prison after serving 25 years for murder. David witnesses Flynn's murder by mysterious nightriders and retrieves the man's map of Quantrill's gold hidden in the Black Hills. Estleman's keen sense of humor and vivid characterizations make David's treasure hunt, with some real Western stereotypes, an entertaining and suspenseful adventure.
- Carol Clark, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VACopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
