{"product_id":"the-madstone-9780316564342","title":"The Madstone","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"A wonderfully transporting tale of love in the Old West\" (\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e Magazine) and \"a brilliant, beautiful page-turner\" (Chris Bohjalian, #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Double Blind\u003c\/i\u003e) about a pregnant young mother, her child, and the frontier tradesman who helps them flee vengeful outlaws, in a work that echoes \u003ci\u003eLonesome Dove \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eNews of the World.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Texas hill country, 1868. As nineteen-year-old Benjamin Shreve tends to business in his workshop, he witnesses a stagecoach strand a passenger. When the man, a treasure hunter, persuades Benjamin to help track down the vanished coach--and a mysterious fortune left aboard--Benjamin is drawn into a drama whose scope he could never have imagined, for they discover on reaching the coach that its passengers include Nell, a pregnant young woman, and her four-year-old son, Tot, who are fleeing Nell's brutal husband and his murderous brothers. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Having told the Freedmen's Bureau the whereabouts of her husband's gang--a sadistic group wanted for countless acts of harassment and violence against Black citizens--Nell is in grave danger. If her husband catches her, he will kill her and take their son. Learning of their plight, Benjamin offers to deliver Nell and Tot to a distant port on the Gulf of Mexico, where they can board a ship to safety. He is joined in this chivalrous act by two other companions: the treasure hunter whose stranding began this endeavor and a restless Black Seminole who is a veteran of wars on both sides of the Rio Grande and who has an escape plan of his own. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Fraught with jeopardy from the outset, the trek across Texas becomes still more dangerous as buried secrets, including a cursed necklace, emerge. And even as Benjamin falls in love with Nell and imagines a life as Tot's father, vengeful pursuers are never far behind. With its vivid characters and expansive canvas, \u003ci\u003eThe Madstone \u003c\/i\u003ecalls to mind \u003ci\u003eLonesome Dove\u003c\/i\u003e, yet Elizabeth Crook's new novel is a singular achievement. Told in Benjamin's resolute and unforgettable voice, it is full of eccentric action, unrelenting peril, and droll humor--a thrilling and beautifully rendered story of three people sharing a hazardous and defining journey that will forever bind them together.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eElizabeth Crook\u003c\/b\u003e has published five previous novels, including \u003ci\u003eThe Which Way Tree\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Night Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, which received the Spur Award from Western Writers of America, and \u003ci\u003eMonday, Monday, \u003c\/i\u003e a \u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e Best Book of 2014 and winner of the Jesse H. Jones Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her family.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Little Brown and Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50576785342738,"sku":"9780316564342","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-madstone-9780316564342","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}