Winter Rain [Hardcover]

Terry C. Johnston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1993

After returning to his Missouri farm from a Union prison to find his wife and children abducted, ex-Confederate Jonah Hook journeys West to find his wife enslaved by a religious fanatic and his sons being raised by the Comanche.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jonah Hook, hero of Johnston's previous novel Carry the Wind , reappears in an atmospheric but unpleasant tale of his hard times in the years following the Civil War. Returning home to Missouri after a stint in a Yankee prison camp and service in the Indian wars out West, the former Confederate finds that his wife Gritta, their daughter Hattie and two sons have been kidnapped by raiders. He begins a seven-year quest, reminiscent of John Ford's epic film The Searchers , to find his family. Gritta has become the personal property of a renegade Mormon freebooter whose followers sexually assault her boys, Zeke and Jeremiah, before selling them to Mexican comancheros; Hattie's whereabouts are unknown. Told in a flashback from 1908, when the aged Jonah recounts his ordeal to a newspaper reporter, the narrative follows him as he recovers Hattie and one of the boys. In the final chapter, Jonah promises the journalist a sequel relating his reunion with Gritta. Johnston has a good sense of place and a fine knowledge of history, but his writing is sloppy, and he indulges in far too many scenes of graphic violence and smarmily described sex.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Prolific Johnston's (the Son of the Plains series; The Plainsmen series) vision of the West continues--grim, bleak, and unrelenting--in this sequel to Cry of the Hawk (1992). Having been reunited with his daughter, Hattie, aptly named Jonah Hook still must find his two sons and his wife, Gritta. Jonah's family had been previously abducted from their Missouri farm by Mormon brigands while he was off with Johnny Reb fighting Indians in the West as a ``galvanized Yankee.'' Now, after several hard years, Jonah is hot on the trail of abductor Jubilee Usher and his ``Avenging Angels.'' Poor Jonah loses the scent, though, when Brigham Young disavows Usher and banishes him before Jonah arrives in Salt Lake. So, sided by Shoshone Two Sleep, he wanders down to Sonora and later north up to Texas's Llano Estacado searching for his sons, whom he learns the Comanches have taken. (This over several more years.) Meanwhile, Jonah's mentor, old-time mountain man Shadrach Sweete, is scouting for the cavalry hot in pursuit of Tall Bull's Cheyenne. Among them is Sweete's son, High-Backed Bull, who's sworn to kill his father because he detests his white half. Johnston, injecting plenty of gunsmoke and violence, real and imagined, into his work, makes the reader privy to actual battles (Adobe Wells, etc.), all the more interesting because they're depicted mainly from the Indian point-of-view--plus barroom brawls, Indian pony raids, etc. Gritta is not recovered, making way for another installment. Realistic, full-fleshed characters and action permeated with the rank smell of grease, the creak of saddle leather, the screams of the dying and wounded. No surprises lie in wait, though, for those familiar with Western history and events. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 419 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1St Edition edition (September 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553095080
• ISBN-13: 978-0553095081
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,403,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceedingly Well-Written, Rich in the Flavor of the Period, June 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Winter Rain: The Plainsmen (Mass Market Paperback)

This book, the second in the trilogy of Jonah Hook was in a word outstanding. Any person who's at all interested in "wild west" literature or simply in for a good read would do good to shell out the money to pick up this trio of books. The authenticity of the book literally shines through in every paragraph. It's obvious the book has been exceedingly researched. However, the thing that makes the writing of Terry C. Johnston so exemplary is the depth of the characters he creates. They are three-dimensional characters, real people, and simply quite interesting. The action packed portions of the book are also exciting in that old-fashioned heart thumping sort of way. In short, this book rich in authenticity and the flavor of the period, is well-written in every sense and has well-developed, interesting, real characters and enough emotion in it's pages to keep you reading. Anyone interested in the period or anyone wanting some good reading to chew on for a while would do good to pick up the Jonah Hook trilogy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical Novel About the Plains, September 12, 2009

By 

fhk (Gig Harbor, WA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Winter Rain: The Plainsmen (Mass Market Paperback)

Jonah Hook continues his search for his sons & wife. Good story within the context of the true history of the plains during the 1860 - 70s. But Johnston's use of similes gets tiring at times.