The Tentmaker
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
When the Civil War ended, Gil Hooley journeyed out West, figuring that if there was any market left for his hand-crafted tents, it would be on the wide open frontier. But when his wagon breaks down in the middle of nowhere, a community begins to grow around him, one tent at a time, until Gil finds himself the unlikely leader-and defender-of his own town. Clay Reynolds tells the tale of a man who discovers that even if a place wasn't your destination, it might still be your destiny.With an all-new introduction to the Baen Ebook Edition.Clay Reynolds is the winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award."Ambitious and absorbing." -Larry McMurtry on The TentmakerAt the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (DRM Rights Management).At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Written with brio and fidelity to historical detail, Reynolds's sixth novel (after Monuments) is a rough-riding, idiosyncratic western set in the 1880s. Reynolds loves quirky characters, impossible fixes and odd plot twists, and he has packed a wagonload of each into this colorful horse opera. Gil Hooley is a St. Louis tent maker, an obscure man intent on doing as little as possible. Stranded alone with a broken wagon full of tent-making materials on the North Texas prairie, Hooley figures he will just starve and that will be the end of him for he is nearly helpless as a pioneer. Chance encounters, however, save him from starvation only to catapult him into situations he finds increasingly perturbing. After he impulsively rescues Mino, a non English-speaking immigrant carpenter, from the hands of a deranged marshal, he is saddled with the lawman's widow, Margot, as a business partner. Together, the three of them open a saloon and whorehouse to service the local cowboys. Smitten with Margot, Hooley makes a success of the business, but he is dogged by his misbegotten reputation as a pistolero. Meanwhile, a gang of outlaws led by fat, malodorous Jefferson Tay rob, rape, murder and burn their way across Texas, Kansas and the Oklahoma Territory until a prairie lowlife tells them about the easy pickings at the whorehouse tent city called Hoolian. During a fierce winter storm, Hooley, never one to face a challenge, must finally make a momentous decision, and the result surprises everyone but Margot. Reynolds is in top form with this graphic, galloping yarn of frontier justice.
