Red Rain

March 15, 2010
Murkoff's distinctive second novel (after the much acclaimed Waterborne
) spans five months in 1864 as Dr. William Harp returns to his Hudson Valley hometown after 10 years on a California expedition. With the nation at war and many locals in various states of decline, the doctor doesn't have much idle time. Among the lives that will intersect are mischievous, hard-drinking 13-year-old Coley Hinds, who is eternally torn between right and wrong; retired shipping captain Mickey Blessing; and Mickey's sister, Jane, who pines for her MIA soldier husband, Frank. A narrative lynchpin comes in the discovery of a mastodon skeleton, leading Will to purchase the land where it's found and to scavenge for other remains. Meanwhile, the hushed death of a local woman, violence involving Mickey and a local troublemaker, and jealousy of Will's notoriety for the skeleton he's begun reconstructing on his land all make for a heady denouement. The townsfolks' elaborately described machinations have a tendency to move the narrative in stops and starts, but that's about the only flaw in this dense, deliberate, and lush saga that will surely appeal to readers who appreciate brawny historicals.

June 1, 2010

A novel set during the Civil War though not a Civil War story per se—Murkoff (Waterborne, 2004) is interested in character development rather than in brass, bayonets and battles.

Dr. Will Harp has seen some action in the Indian Wars out west, but when the novel opens in June of 1864 he's returning home to New York State. While he tries to live a quiet life, he tends to be a still point of the turning world as other characters with more energetic agendas swirl around him. Will has an interest in paleontology, and when he finds an interesting discovery being made nearby, he buys up the land so he can have freedom to indulge his scientific curiosity. Throughout much of the narrative he's preoccupied with reclaiming the bones of a mastodon on this land. Meanwhile, Grieves, a smarmy entrepreneur, covets this same property because for a long time he's been planning to build a hotel on it, but Will remains adamant about not selling. Working for the entrepreneur is Mickey Blessing, a pleasantly sadistic enforcer whose name stands in ironic counterpoint to his occupation—breaking the arms, legs and heads of those who cross Grieves's path. Mickey's sister, Jane, patiently awaits the return of her lover, Frank Quinn, from the war, but his death is eventually reported, and she starts to turn to Will for comfort. Street kid Coley Hinds at first becomes Mickey's apprentice, but when Mickey's techniques get particularly brutal, Coley runs away and joins Will at the dig. This novel has a massive feel to it, for the author switches easily and frequently from character to character as their lives unfold, with the Civil War a rumble in the distance.

Murkoff's prose is sure to be compared to that of Charles Frazier—and he writes densely, including enough characters and plot turns for three novels.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 15, 2010
Following up his acclaimed first novel ("Waterborne"), Murkoff again offers a work of historical fiction, this one taking place in the Hudson River port town of Rondout, NY, during 1864. While far removed from the Civil War battlefields, the townsfolk nevertheless remain affected by the war, as many of the men have gone to fight. Physician Will Harp, now returning his family farm after many years in the West, where he rode with the cavalry, and Jane Blessing, a woman who waits in the home of her betrothed, Frank Quinn, after he enlists, reflect most emphatically the emotional pain that war inflicts. Other characters, while not outwardly involved in the war itself, use physical violence in their day-to-day life to win their way in conflicts. This is not to say that this story depicts only bloodshed, as there are also instances of artistic accomplishment, scientific discovery, and genuine affection that make many of the characters people the reader can care about. VERDICT An in-depth examination of life in a gritty river town during wartime in an era of both uncertainty and progress that also provides an assortment of fascinating characters, this work is to be savored. Well worth considering, especially where historical fiction is popular.Maureen Neville, Trenton P.L., NJ

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2010
Set in five months in 1864 in the Hudson River Valley, Murkoffs second novel (after Waterborne, 2004) vividly captures the life of the time, the damage done by war, and the ruthlessness of greed. After serving as a doctor in the army and surviving the Shoshone campaign in Utah, Will Harp returns to claim his family homestead in Rondout, guilt-ridden about his actions in the heat of battle and about lack of contact with his father before he died. Will finds an adversary in Mickey Blessing, the charmingly amoral hired muscle of a powerful businessman who needs Wills land to fulfill his dream. Their lives intersect with teenage orphan Coley Hind, who switches allegiance between the two men. This is less focused than Waterborne, which centered on the building of Boulder Dam; instead, its a sprawling, meandering novel, chock-full of sensory detail that is sometimes painfully acuteas in portraying grief when a loved one is lost in warand scattered with flashbacks to fill in backstories. Plot matters less here than evocation of time and place, and Murkoff is a master at that.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)