Crippled Jack Review Spotlight

 

We're celebrating the release of Boston Teran's revisionist western novel, Crippled Jack. Read on for more info and a sneak peek!

Crippled Jack by Boston Teran is a historical fiction revisionist telling of the wild west. The author is going to take you back to the west where poverty was rampant and Pinkertons were the ones paid to keep people in check for their bosses with the big bucks. This story will revolve around a young boy who is cast aside for things outside of his control. But Fate will have different plans for him. Where he was meant to be either die or live at God's whim, a man will give him a chance at life and being something more than he would have become on his own.

Crippled Jack is an interesting western-style novel. The pacing is a bit slower than I would have liked, but I understand the purpose of it. The author works painstakingly to set the stage for young Matthew to grow and develop into the character that he will later become. His name wasn't always Matthew but he was always afflicted with palsey. When he made choices that his family didn't like, they bound and gagged him before casting him aside. 

Shocked? I certainly was. I can only imagine the fear that he must have felt being left in a desert area with no help and at the mercy of the elements all around him. But he survived. Page by page you will watch this little boy grow and develop at the hands of his rescuer - Drum. But Drum has his own problems. The Pinkertons are after him for somethings he's done. Why he did them? Fairness, justice, to break the power of greed. But that's something that just can't ever truly be broken...greed. But he's determined to break their masters one way or another. 

There are some interesting characters throughout this book, and the author does an excellent job embodying the era and everything that goes with it. You'll get the immersive sense that you are experiencing the various scenes. You'll find yourself holding your breath when Drum is in precarious situations that could get him caught or even killed. You'll get the idea of how the people were back then - eager for that dollar. Either out of personal greed or a desire to take care of their own. 

As this story moves along it gets more engaging and will have you eager to find out what happens next. I'm not much of a reader of western novels, but I'm glad that I took a chance and read this one. 

I'm choosing to rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. While the pacing was a bit slow for me, the author does a good job at keeping me overall engaged. For readers who enjoy western novels, this is one you'll want to check out. 

Thank you to the author, Boston Teran, and R&R Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book. 

Please keep reading for a look at the excerpt and information about the author. Thanks for stopping by my blog and be sure to come back for more reviews in the future! 

Crippled Jack 

Publication Date: September 5th, 2022

Genre: Revisionist Western/ Historical Fiction

CRIPPLED JACK is a revisionist western set against a landmark era in American folklore. Those were the years of poverty, homelessness and hatred between the classes.

In that time when bloodthirsty violence ruled the day a boy was bound and gagged and left to die in the desert. He was not yet nine and suffered what they called the palsy. There was a note pinned to his chest – It’s up to God now.

But the boy did not die. Fate and history merged in his will to live. He was found by a horseman who was at war with the profiteers of the day, the Czars of business, the masters of corporate avarice. He was known as – The Coffin Maker.

He became the star on the boy’s horizon. The boy would grow to become an expert marksman known as Crippled Jack. He will come of age during the labor wars that were consuming the West. His friends will be enemies of the state. He will come to love a woman who has escaped the orphan trains and is a reporter covering the bloodshed sweeping the nation.

Together they will usher in a new America. An America that has every intention of turning the country upside down, so that it may stand right side up.

CRIPPLED JACK transforms the classic American western into a scathing and violent protest novel. A war for social justice, for equality, and for hope – a war we’re still fighting today.

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Chapter One

What tortures await the lives of men? What degree of exile from goodness makes up their souls?

The boy was near about eight, maybe nine years old. His hands and feet had been bound up with heavy rope. His mouth lashed tight with cot- ton strips so he could not cry out.

He was lying just off the Chihuahua Trail where it fed south from San Antonio toward Helena. He had been placed on the most degraded soil, by the remains of a rotted wagon and the sanded-down bones of an ox. A page from the Bible had been torn loose and pinned to his ragged and filthy shirt. And in a fine handwriting was written this:

— It’s up to God now —

...

For days the boy survived on his muffled cries and desperation to stay alive as he caterpillared along, his arms tied behind his back, a thing to behold, crawling inch by inch over rock and gray brown and scrub brush that scored the flesh. Threading down through gullies, his skin blistered, courtesy of the hideous Texas sun. He used his jaw and shoulders and the bottom of his bare bound feet to edge toward a road that grew farther and farther out of reach, until there was no more of him to struggle with.

He lay there alone, awaiting death, in all that unmerciful emptiness with one thought—Why did God hate me so much?

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About the Author

For a generation now, the internationally award-winning author Boston Teran has been writing about America and the moral territory of its soul. Many of his novels are translated into foreign languages, and he has been named alongside great American writers, including Hemingway and Larry McMurtry, filmmakers John Ford and Sam Peckinpah, as well as renowned painters and artists for his far reaching vision of time, place and humanity.

His cult novel, GOD IS A BULLET, was adapted to film in 2021 by Nick Cassavetes, and has been compared to such seminal works as Joan Didion’s THE WHITE ALBUM and John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS. NEVER COUNT OUT THE DEAD has been called a modern equivalent of Macbeth. THE CREED OF VIOLENCE is currently in film development with Universal Studi

os. His DEFIANT AMERICANS SERIES have been praised for confronting an America mired in hatred and human corruption, injustice, racism and inequality, and his characters’ quest for moral order and redemption.

The author has won countless awards, including The American Fiction Award for “Adventure: Historical,” the GRAND PRIX CALIBRE 38, the Stephen Crane Literary Award for “First Fiction,” the Fiction Lovers Association of Japan Award for “Best Novel,” the Benjamin Franklin Award in the LGBTQ+ category, and the John Creasey Award for “Best Novel” by the British Crime Writers Association.

Boston Teran

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