Patricia Stoltey

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A House of Men by Sumner Wilson is More Than a Western

August 29, 2017 By: Patricia

I recently had the privilege of reading an advance copy of Sumner Wilson’s A House of Men, a Five Star Frontier Fiction novel scheduled for release in December 2017. Many thanks to the author for the opportunity to read and review this excellent story.

A House of Men is about Steel Fixx and his family and their ongoing conflict with Hotus Rust, Steel’s cousin. Steel is married and has three sons and a daughter. At first, life is good for Steel’s family. The daughter is treasured, the boys strong and reliable. One son, Clive, is described as “…always bursting with happiness and joy like a seedpod with split seams, its fluffy seeds spilling out in a hefty breeze.”

The Fixx family walks a moral high ground when compared to Hotus and his wayward but favored youngest son, Jorod, but the cousins have avoided all-out war…until Jorod and Molly Fixx get to know each other a little too well. Molly gets pregnant and Jorod promises to marry her. He fails to follow through, however, wandering off to enjoy his whiskey and whores instead.

Steel’s moral high ground begins to get a little shaky here. He and his oldest sons set out to trap Jorod in the open. Steel administers a whipping that convinces Jorod to do the right thing if he wants to survive Steel’s wrath.

Three children later, Molly dies in childbirth while Jorod is away, having returned to his old life of women and drink. Steel’s rage festers for a long time, but he tries to satisfy his grief by taking Molly and Jorod’s three children away to raise them in the Steel household. Hotus Rust becomes obsessed with getting the children back.

Suppressed rage is dangerous, and revenge is a slippery slope. The downhill slide into hatred and violence, fueled by the deeply disturbed old man Hotus Rust, leads the Fixx family into unimaginable tragedy.

A House of Men is a thought-provoking story that kept me turning the pages as I worried about Steel’s family and what was going to happen. It’s not just a Western, it’s a mainstream novel that just happens to be set in Missouri in the late 1800s. Highly recommended.

Category: Books and Authors

Book Review: Epitaph, by Mary Doria Russell … review by David M. Jessup

August 11, 2016 By: Patricia

So much has been written about the OK Corral I almost passed this book up. Now I consider Epitaph: A Novel of the OK Corral the best historical novel on the American West I’ve ever read. Historical fiction often suffers when authors dwell too much on historical fact at the expense of a good story, …Read More

Category: Books and Authors, Guest Blogger

Shotgun Moon — a Mini-Review

August 16, 2015 By: Patricia

I just finished reading K.C. McRae’s Shotgun Moon, a standalone mystery from Midnight Ink. It’s really more than a mystery. It’s on the dark side. It’s a thriller and it’s suspense. The main character killed the man who raped her and now returns to Montana to get her life back to normal. ‘Then the great …Read More

Category: Books and Authors

A mini-book review and other stuff

July 19, 2015 By: Patricia

Bones and Roses (A Cypress Bay mystery) by Eileen Goudge Note:  Eileen was a guest on my blog last August with her post “Will Write for Food.” I just had the pleasure of reading Bones and Roses, the first book in a mystery series from long-time and successful women’s fiction author Eileen Goudge. From page …Read More

Category: Books and Authors, The Writing Life, Writer's organizations

Book Review: Mosquitoland, a YA novel by David Arnold

May 25, 2015 By: Patricia

According to David Arnold’s bio and author photo, he’s a relatively young guy with a wife and a young son. I’m not sure why he decided to write a YA novel from a teen girl’s point of view, but I’m sure glad he did. The story of Mim (Mary Iris Malone) in Mosquitoland is a …Read More

Category: Books and Authors

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Meet Patricia

I read, I write, I blog, and sometimes I do the laundry and cook. My 2014 novel, Dead Wrong, was a finalist in the thriller category of the 2015 Colorado Book Awards. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage, December 20, 2017) is a historical mystery set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. The novel is a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards for General Fiction. Read More…

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