The Homecoming

The Homecoming

Dan Walsh

This is a reluctant hero kind of tale. Captain now Major Shawn Collins' Flying Fortress was shot down over Germany and manages to crash land it among beach dunes in occupied Holland saving his entire crew and getting them back to England the same day. At the same time his wife is killed on the home front in an automobile collision leaving his son in the reluctant care of the 7-yr-old boy's grandfather. There's a child care worker involved here. The grieving airman is sent home to a hero's welcome he's not sure he deserves and the less than willing recipient of a lot of attention. If you've watched Flags of Our Fathers you have an inkling of what he's up against. Or think John Basilone in The Pacific.

Shawn would just like to be left alone to grieve and bond with his motherless son but that is not to be his lot.

There's a great deal of name-dropping involved here. Shawn is from a suburb of Philadelphia. He takes Miss Thompson for Coffee at Wanamakers Department Store and later after meeting his PR Department guide, a newly minted Lt. who has never fired a gun he is casually taken for Dinner at the Waldorf, then a swank hotel next to Fennway Park where I expect he'll be throwing out the first pitch. Just a bit overwhelming for a small town boy.

Meanwhile back home Miss Thompson is learning how to be a Nanny or governess. There's a special place for Harry the train porter. The London Blitz gets mention including the dreaded Buzz Bombs. At some point an appointment with the White House for a Medal of Honour and for Katherine and Shawn an HEA that will make Patrick a happy boy. He may even get to pop THE QUESTION.

You'll have to read the book to see how it all came out.

Virus-free.www.avast.com

Red River by Borden Chase

Red River - Howard Hawks [1948 ]

Black and white. John Wayne 41, Montgomery Clift at 28. Tom Dunson and Matt Garth lead a Cattle Drove 1000 miles Texas to Missouri. Garth was the survivor of a raid that killed the other members of his wagon train and adopted by Dunson. As the drive begins he is a lithe young man.

From the Borden Chase book:

Blazing Guns On The Chisholm Trail

And even before the drive begins the contest between Matt Garth and the turncoat Cherry Valance is established. Who's the quickest draw must be established and the results are usually deadly.

I've yet to read the book but Hollywood likes happy endings and the movie has one. Johnny Boggs subsequent novel tells a different story.

If nine thousand cattle were driven down main street the after cleanup and the stink must have been massive. The little wood burning steam train shown in the movie would have taken years to transport that many cattle. Feeding that many cattle would have denuded the surrounding countryside but this was the movies.

The Book

Regret not reading it first. As expected Hollywood mashed the plot completely. A cattle drive with Texas Longhorns there was. River crossings, stampedes and death. And what remained of the crew made Abilene and found a railway. And a legend was born.

Virus-free.www.avast.com

The Marshal of Sentinel

The Marshal of Sentinel

Louis L'Amour

A short story I'm listening to in Dramatized Audio Format, an hour long. It all builds in tension as the marshal suspects a bank robbery is about to happen.

The marshal seems too soft spoken for the position he holds.

Virus-free.www.avast.com

Man Riding West

Man Riding West

Louis L'Amour, Mark Bramhall (Narrator)

Audiobook version. Two books by this name from this author. Being reluctant to fight doesn't make a man yaller, especially if he's a fast draw and doesn't want to get the rep that goes with the distinction. However riding with rustlers can get you branded as such and hung. What can we say.

Virus-free.www.avast.com

Cheyenne Challenge

The First Mountain Man #5

Cheyenne Challenge

William W. Johnstone, J. Rodney Turner (Narrator)

As wagon train after wagon train wends its way across the landscape Easterners set on leaving behind packed cities, poverty, taxes, and military service stream into the West invading native lands and threatening their livelihoods. While supplying employment to the mountain men who inhabit the wilds and know it best the influx of civilization threatens their way of life as well. And where there are hapless immigrants there are gangs more than willing to raid their wagons and murder the riders.

These books are violent and follow similar patterns. Piles of bodies litter the scene almost like a video game.

Virus-free.www.avast.com

Angels Flight

Harry Bosch #6

Angels Flight

Michael Connelly, Peter Giles (Narrator)

Harry and his team are called out to handle the murder of a prominent black civil rights lawyer hated by 100's of LA Cops. Dozens of other detectives were taken off the scene after Bosch arrived. He was assigned four IAD cops to assist including one he particularly hates. That at least half the force were prime suspects makes this particularly thankless.

Angels Flight is an LA funicular not unlike the one between the walled city of Quebec City and Lower Town. They consist of a railway of pedestrian cars. The one in LA two opposite moving cars which balance one another.

Two white cops going to inform a grieving black widow and her young adult son was not the smartest move especially since Bosch's two partners are both black.

Virus-free.www.avast.com

The Kill List

Mitch Kearns Combat Tracker #3

The Kill List

J.T. Sawyer

Mitch drops Dev off at the Durango Airport. The locations used in the novel really exist this being a mountainous region with deep canyons I've actually driven. The people involved with the capture, conviction, and incarceration of a crime lord's son are drugged and dropped into a canyon about to be flooded.

Included are

Mitch

Nicholas prosecuting attorney X

Dylan marshal X

Julie doctor X

Brian prison warden X

Lisa author who wrote about it X

Well it is called The Kill List

Virus-free.www.avast.com