The Far Empty
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- USD 6.99
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- USD 6.99
Publisher Description
“[So] good I wish I’d written it. The poetic and bloody ground of west Texas has given birth to a powerful new voice in contemporary western crime fiction.”—Craig Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of the Walt Longmire series
In this gritty crime debut set in the stark Texas borderlands, an unearthed skeleton will throw a small town into violent turmoil.
Seventeen-year-old Caleb Ross is adrift in the wake of the sudden disappearance of his mother more than a year ago, and is struggling to find his way out of the small Texas border town of Murfee. Chris Cherry is a newly minted sheriff’s deputy, a high school football hero who has reluctantly returned to his hometown. When skeletal remains are discovered in the surrounding badlands, the two are inexorably drawn together as their efforts to uncover Murfee’s darkest secrets lead them to the same terrifying suspect: Caleb’s father and Chris’s boss, the charismatic and feared Sheriff Standford “Judge” Ross.
Dark, elegiac, and violent, The Far Empty is a modern Western, a story of loss and escape set along the sharp edge of the Texas border. Told by a longtime federal agent who knows the region, it’s a debut novel you won’t soon forget.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We can’t think of another crime novel written by a veteran DEA agent with an intimate knowledge of the political and criminal turmoil of the Texas-Mexico border. The Far Empty is J. Todd Scott’s first book, which is remarkable given its confident scope and brilliance. Like a tornado, the story sucks multiple characters into the vortex. There’s murder, meth, and corrupt law enforcement, but also strained relationships, intelligent outsiders, and beautiful descriptions of nature. This harsh and action-packed thriller heralds a talented new voice in contemporary Westerns.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Federal agent Scott's knowledge of the border country of West Texas is on fine display in his outstanding debut. Deputy Sheriff Chris Cherry, a former high school football hero who's recently returned to his hometown of Murfee, Tex., is sure that the skeletal remains found in the desert are the result of murder, and that the victim isn't just another anonymous illegal immigrant. Meanwhile, 17-year-old Caleb Ross struggles to make sense of his mother's disappearance a year earlier. His only friend at school is America Reynosa, whose older brother, Rodolfo, has also recently vanished. Caleb is convinced that his father, Sheriff Stanford "Judge" Ross, whose reputation for brutality and ruthlessness are legendary, is behind it all. Judge has run the town of Murfee for years, but his new deputy's discovery opens the lid on a whole mess of trouble that, for the first time, he might not be able to contain. Scott's skills as a storyteller are impressive, and his tale of an ambitious young lawman has echoes of the movie Shane and the books of Cormac McCarthy.
