(hb; 2013)
From the inside flap
“Jack Parker thought he’d
already seen his fair share of tragedy. His grandmother was killed in a farm
accident when he was barely five years old. His parent have just succumbed to
the smallpox epidemic sweeping turn-of-the-century East Texas─orphaning him and
his younger sister, Lula.
“Then catastrophe strikes on
the way to their uncle’s farm, when a traveling group of bank-robbing bandits
murder Jack’s grandfather and kidnap his sister. With no elders left for miles,
Jack must grow up fast─and enlist a band of heroes like the which has never
been seen─if his sister stands any chance of survival. But the best he can come
up with is Shorty, a charismatic, bounty-hunting dwarf; Eustace, the
grave-digging son of an ex-slave; and Jimmie Sue, a street-smart-for-hire who’s
come into some very intimate knowledge about the bandits (and a few members of
Jack’s extended family to boot).
“In the throes of being
civilized, East Texas is still a wild, feral place. Oil wells spurt liquid
money from the ground. But as Jack’s about to find out, blood and redemption
rule supreme.”
Review
Thicket is an
excellent, timely mix of revenge thriller and western, an often-grim work of brutal
violence balanced with humor (often with quip-filled exchanges) and well-placed
instances of cautious empathy. Its key characters’ pasts and other aspects are effectively
established and reader-involving, without slowing up the pace of this terse,
dire mission (to rescue Jack’s sister, Lula, from a trio of sadistic villains, Fatty,
Cutthroat and N***er Pete).
Thicket is
not a novel for those who are especially sensitive about murder,
rape (not explicitly shown, but emotionally recounted), torture, brief
instances of animal cruelty, racism, and other human-born horrors. Anyone else
who enjoys a masterful and especially nasty-twist thriller may find this
burn-through book a more-than-worthwhile read.
#
A film version of this is
supposedly forthcoming. IMDb lists the following information (as of
December 18, 2019).
Elliott Lester is set to
direct, from a screenplay Chris Kelley.
Charlie Plummer plays Jack
Parker. Peter Dinklage plays Reginald Jones. Sophia Lillis is attached to the
project as well as Noomi Rapace.
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