Land of Wolves

March 6, 2017
Turner’s second alternative history featuring Joseph Foster (after 2015’s Lincoln’s Bodyguard) provides an imaginative answer to the question he poses in an author’s note: “What would America have looked like if our greatest president had lived?” In 1874, Lincoln (who eventually resigned from office), Joseph (who saved the president’s life in 1865), and Joseph’s love interest, Molly Ferguson, are living in Tennessee. A period of relative tranquility ends when Joseph’s mother, a Native American, is tortured and murdered; before she dies, she implores Joseph to search for his daughter, Aurora, who has been abducted by a sinister group of businessmen known as the Consortium, “the Confederation of Industrial Barons who have kept the flames of conflict alive after the Civil War in order to amass great wealth.” Joseph’s search takes him out west, where he meets another major historical figure of the era. Some readers may find that development a stretch, but all should applaud Turner’s sympathetic focus on the plight of native peoples. Agent: Elizabeth Kracht, Kimberley Cameron & Associates.

May 1, 2017
The author's second novel, after Lincoln's Bodyguard (2015), continues the story of Joseph Foster, who saved Abraham Lincoln's life at Ford's Theatre (he killed John Wilkes Booth before Booth could murder the president). The story is set in the mid-1870s; the Consortium, a group of powerful industrial barons who secretly run the country, have murdered Joseph's mother and daughter. Joseph and his wife, Molly, vow revenge. Their plan is to relieve the Consortium of all its money via a daring heist. The novel's alternate version of the U.S. circa 1875 is clever and plausibly designed, its characters are engaging and, in some cases, entertainingly over the top, and the story is almost cinematic in its construction and execution. Terrific fun and perfect reading for fans of alternate-history adventures.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)