Finding Billy Battles: An Account of Peril, Transgression and Redemption
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Western Kansas 1860. Billy Battles is born on a remote homestead just off the storied Santa Fe Trail. More than one hundred years later a great-grandson inherits two trunks filled with Billy's personal effects. Also in those trunks are several startling journals that chronicle an astonishing life that until now was obscured by the murky haze of time and Billy's deep-rooted desire for secrecy.
The journals tell of a man both haunted and hunted who, in a desperate search for peace and redemption, journeys far from the untamed American West to the Far East, South America, and Europe. They meticulously describe Billy's interaction with a wide assortment of men and women--some legendary, a few iniquitous, and many lost to history. They also recount his participation in such cataclysmic events as the Spanish-American War, turmoil in French Indochina, and violent revolutions in Mexico and South America.
Complying with Billy's last request the great-grandson assembles the journals into a compelling trilogy that reveals a man often trapped and overwhelmed by circumstances beyond his control, but who nevertheless manages to persevere for ten decades.
Customer Reviews
Finding Billy Battles: An Account of Peril, Transgression and Redemption
This is easily the best work of fiction I've read in some time. I don't usually give books a 5-star review but this one is definitely worth it. The story is a work of fiction that is set accurately and comfortably amidst the historical events of the frontier west in the mid to late 1800s. This is the first book of a trilogy and it follows William (Billy) Battles from his youth through his 30’s living in Kansas and Colorado. His adventures along what was then the frontier range from Dodge City to Tombstone to Las Vegas, New Mexico and they include historical figures from the old west like Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Bat Masterson. Going in to this I assumed that Billy Battles would be a larger-than-life character but he’s actually an everyman whose life takes him through interesting times and fascinating experiences. As the subtitle says, this is "an account of peril, transgression, and redemption."
The story itself is fast paced and well written with characters that will quickly engage you. Ronald E. Yates is a skillful writer and those skills are on display here. You'll find that his use of 19th century western vernacular adds a great deal to the flavor of the story and the characters' dialog but it's never awkward or hard to understand. Even the device for telling the story, a series of journals kept by newspaper reporter Battles left to his grandson, is both clever and adds an interesting element that will link the upcoming stories. Don’t skip the prologue.
I'm really looking forward to the second book that will take Billy Battles to Vietnam and Asia in the early 1900s. Yates himself was a reporter who lived and worked in Southeast Asia and Japan so I expect he will use this knowledge to great advantage in the second book.
One final note. If you have an iPad or Kindle, the $3.99 price point may be one of the best buys in the iBooks or Kindle stores. This is a very good book at an excellent price.