Glorious--A Novel of the American West

April 1, 2014
The Wild West comes alive in this novel of prospectors, desolate cavalry posts, rotgut saloons and Apache raiders. Cash McLendon is an orphaned street urchin in pre-Civil War St. Louis who catches the eye of a local robber baron, Rupert Douglass, who puts him to work as spy, fixer and bagman. The opportunistic Cash does the job expertly, so Douglass, intent on preserving his empire, offers his mentally unstable daughter, Ellen, to Cash in marriage. Cash takes the Faustian bargain in spite of his love for Gabrielle Tirrito, an immigrant Italian storekeeper's daughter, but Douglass decides to insure the contract by driving the Tirritos from St. Louis. Shortly after the marriage, Ellen commits suicide. Cash, fearing Douglass' retribution, flees St. Louis for the silver mining camp of Glorious, Ariz., where the Tirritos established another store. Seeking redemption, Cash remains in the mining camp even after Gabrielle rejects him. Gabrielle comes across as too saintly, and Cash would need to grow more to be a sympathetic protagonist, but other characters--mainly the townspeople--are realistically drawn, right down to the mayor's plump wife who eats jelly by the jar. Seeking revenge, Douglass dispatches a 19th-century Terminator type, Patrick Brautigan, who arrives in Glorious to clamp "a meaty hand on [Cash's] shoulder, his thick fingers crushing McLendon's collarbone." Guinn knows hot, windy, dusty frontier Arizona, from the rattlesnakes of Picket Post Mountain to the ragtag raiding Apache; poorly equipped, understaffed Army troopers charged with riding the land of the marauders; and the rough-hewn prospectors who retreat to adobe saloons featuring warm beer, rotgut whiskey and worn-out women. Although slow to kick into high gear, the plot is classic, with Cash fleeing the St. Louis frying pan only to fall face first into the fiery machinations of another rich rogue--a rancher who wants to control Glorious and siphon off its riches. This first of a trilogy is more L'Amour entertainment than Lonesome Dove epic, but it's good fun nonetheless.

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April 1, 2014

Armed with a gun he doesn't know how to shoot, Cash McLendon is an unlikely candidate for surviving in the mining town of Glorious in the Arizona Territory in 1872. On the run from St. Louis and his wealthy father-in-law, who blames him for his daughter's death, Cash ends up in Glorious, where his jilted former love had moved. Gabrielle Tirritos rebuffs his renewed attentions because her heart has mended thanks to the local sheriff, but Cash sticks around anyway in hopes of winning her back. He soon finds himself changing from someone who only cares about self-preservation to a person who wants to help the townspeople save Glorious from rebellious Apaches and other evil forces. VERDICT Guinn has parlayed the research he did for his nonfiction title The Last Gunfight (a history of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral) by weaving the early days of the infamous Clanton brothers into the story. Sprinkled with allusions to Mark Twain, President Grant, Cochise, and the Clantons, this first installment in a trilogy will delight historical fiction fans longing for the return of classic Westerns. This entertaining outing is sure to keep the saloon doors swinging for more entries in the genre. [See Prepub Alert, 11/18/13.]--Wendy W. Paige, Shelby Cty. P.L., Morristown, IN

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2014
Cash McLendon, a street kid in St. Louis, is befriended by an unreconstructed capitalist named Rupert Douglass. Douglass educates Cash and turns him into a gentleman but at a cost: Douglass' method is to buy his competitors out, killing them if they don't comply. Acting as Douglass' agent, Cash betrays his shopkeeper girlfriend, Gabrielle, forcing Gabrielle and her father to flee west to the encampment of Glorious, Arizona, where city founders hope any day to find silver. Meanwhile, Cash's bargain with the devil falls apart when his hysterical wife, Douglass' daughter, dies from a laudanum overdose. Cash flees, too, and in 1872 reaches Glorious, where he hopes to make amends to Gabrielle. Proving you can't run from your past forever, another unreconstructed capitalist hovers near town and tries to manipulate Cash. The sour relationship of the ex-lovers, leavened with a hint of rekindled romance, is delightful, and Cash himself, the guilt-ridden tenderfoot who can't ride a horse, is wonderfully appealing. Glorious is an old-fashioned western with likable characters who, because Gunn projects a trilogy, will return shortly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)