Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Independence Public Library | FICTION - GARLOCK | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Newberg Public Library | FICTION GARLOCK | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Bestselling author Dorothy Garlock ("The Edge of Town; High on a Hill)" now delivers a moving, nostalgic tale of Americana set in Oklahoma in the late 1920s. "Ms. Garlock is the diva of Americana Romance."--"Romantic Times"
Author Notes
Dorothy Garlock is a Texas native living in Clear Lake, Iowa, who quit her job as a newspaper columnist and reporter at the age of 49 to write novels. She entered her first novel in a contest and lost, but she sold the book. Now, over twenty years later, she has millions of copies in print and has had her work translated into 18 languages.
So many of her more than 40 books are set in the Old West that Dorothy Garlock has come to be classified as a Western Romance writer. She is a member of the Romance Writers Hall of Fame. Popular titles include Almost Eden, The Listening Sky, and Larkspur. With Hope is a gritty, unsentimental romance set in the Great Depression.
Dorothy Garlock also writes under the names Dorothy Glenn, Dorothy Philips and Johanna Phillips.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The Midwest in the 1920s is the setting for this romantic melodrama featuring the spunky, independent little sister of Julie Jones, the heroine of another Garlock novel, The Edge of Town. Jill Jones has recently come from Missouri to the boomtown of Rainwater, Okla., to help her ailing Aunt Justine run her hotel, a former house of ill repute. Shortly after her arrival, her flirtatious childhood friend and self-appointed protector, Thad Taylor, shows up and sweet-talks his way into a job. He is wary of the attention Jill is receiving from some of the other men in town, including Hunter Westfall, a womanizing oil tycoon, and Lloyd Madison, a creepy lawyer with "the mark of the devil" on his face and a longstanding vendetta against Justine. There are scads of supporting characters, including Radna, Justine's devoted mixed-race housekeeper, and Laura Hopper, an attractive young widow who catches Westfall's eye. Things turn grim when Thad and Jill discover the remains of a badly mutilated young woman buried in the sand. The detailed depiction of the Oklahoma oil town lends an air of authenticity, as does the colorful (if at times overdone) period slang. Garlock is most entertaining when she focuses on the love affairs percolating among the cast members, but the murder-mystery subplot feels out of place and the identity of the killer is obvious from the beginning. Overproduction may be cramping Garlock's style-her last novel, High on a Hill, came out in June of this year. (Jan. 2) Forecast: Garlock's habit of reintroducing familiar characters is a handy tool for hooking readers, and should keep fans on board despite the lapses of her latest. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Roustabouts and romantics in the Tulsa oilfields. Throw in a serial killer and things start happening in Rainwater, Oklahoma, circa 1927. First, a flashback to a dreadful scene years ago: teenaged Justine, poor and friendless, gives birth to a child by the Judge, a venomous old man who wants an heir. Not that he's satisfied with the result: the infant boy has a bright red birthmark on his face. The Judge throws the girl out on the street and raises the child to be as spiteful and strange as he is. In due time, Justine becomes the local madam (under guise of running the hotel), eventually achieving respectability, but she loses track of her woman-despising son. Enter Jilly, Justine's country-bred niece, who's come to help run the hotel. Pretty, young Jilly attracts a lot of unwanted attention from the roustabouts, and it's not long before her husky friend Thad Taylor steps in to rescue her. Aw, shucks-why him? Why can't he let handsome, debonair Hunter Westfall, oil entrepreneur, do the rescuing? But Hunter is smitten with lovely Laura Hopper, young widow and mother of an adorable tot. All the good men of Rainwater rally round when a dog drags in a severed arm from a female body also sans head and breasts. The killer tried to cover his crime by setting fire to the house, so it takes a while to identify the victim-but a distinctive earring amid the ashes belonged to Carsie, a woman of easy virtue with whom Hunter once had a fling. Other clues lead out of town, to the nasty young Lloyd Madison, whose bright red birthmark identifies him as the son of Justine, now on her deathbed. Yes, her secret shame and sorrow will be exorcised, and the killer will be stalked by Okalahoma lawman and sharpshooter Jelly Bryce. Old-fashioned mellerdrama with nonstop action, true lovers, and sneering villains-all in this third hardcover from veteran romancer Garlock (The Edge of Town, not reviewed).
Booklist Review
Garlock secures her standing as the premier writer of Americana romance with her third book featuring the Jones family and friends. Jill has traveled to the rough and tumble oil-boom town of Rainwater, Oklahoma, to help her ailing aunt by managing her hotel, the only one in town. Thad Taylor, who years earlier had saved Jill from a serial rapist (The Edge of Town [BKL Ap 15 01]) turns up, sent ahead of her brother Joe to keep an eye on her until he can arrive. When out walking, Thad and Jill find a severed arm that turns out to belong to a young woman who has been murdered and dismembered. Garlock provides top-notch, edge-of-the-seat suspense as an evil predator stalks Aunt Justine and imperils Jill and everyone connected with the hotel. «Jelly» Bryce, the FBI's most famous real-life sharpshooter, plays a role in this Prohibition-era tale of romantic suspense that features three well-developed love relationships and an authentic feel for the time. Diana Tixier Herald.