Painted Horses

Julia Whelan narrates this modern-day Western with panache and strength. She finds unique voices for its young heroine, Catherine Lemay, an archaeologist; her two assistants, Jack Allen and 17-year-old Native American Miriam, and a mysterious older man named John H. These carefully drawn characters tell a story of struggle between cultural preservation and modern development. A dam is needed to generate desperately needed hydroelectric power in Montana, but its potential location is sacred to the Crow peoples. Whelan delivers the stark descriptions of Montana with feeling and draws the listener into the atmosphere. She provides deep empathy for Catherine as she makes a choice that will affect many lives, especially her own. S.C.A. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Starred review from March 24, 2014
Brooks’s debut captures the grandeur of the American West. Catherine Lemay, a former pianist, goes to Montana in the 1950s as a young archeologist to survey a valley for signs of native habitation before the area is flooded by a hydroelectric project. Catherine fell in love with archeology while digging at Roman sites in Britain as a student, but now in the ruggedly masculine West, she almost immediately butts heads with her assigned guide, Jack Allen. She also falls under the spell of John H., an artist and lover of horses who leads a nomadic life in the badlands. Catherine’s arduous search of the valley is contrasted for much of the novel with John H.’s harrowing life story. When the two meet, intrigue sparks respect, which eventually flares into passion. The middle of the novel bogs down with lavish description (“The tilt of the planet had outrun the legs of winter and dawn climbed early now over the wide lip of the world”), and the third act, in which Catherine’s findings threaten the balance of money and power in the community, follows a predicable course. But on the whole, this is a debut that captures a spirit of a place.

March 1, 2015

Brooks's wonderful debut novel is set in the modernizing Montana of the 1950s. Catherine, a passionate yet sheltered young archaeologist, is sent west by a power company to investigate a canyon before it is destroyed to make a dam. John, a gruff yet sensitive cowboy, leads her to ruins that the two eventual lovers must fight the power company to preserve. Much of the story is told in flashbacks to Catherine's break with her strict upbringing to pursue archaeology or John's horseback Nazi hunting during World War II. Stirring descriptions of horses and Western landscapes echo the characters' preservationist motives. Julia Whelan portrays the many characters of the novel deeply and distinctly. VERDICT Recommended for fans of Westerns, archaeology, historical romances, or horse epics.--Mark Swails, Johnson Cty. Community Coll., Overland Park, KS

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