Bücher der Reihe Examinations of Paradise

"Westerners have come in all sorts - ranchers, frontiersmen, gold miners, gunfighters, even singing cowboys. John Holt gives us a poet, lamenting the passing of the West. His character's poems equal the story he tells."- Hollis George, editorial director and anthologistThe West has been celebrated with songs, words and photographs for well over 100 years. This novel is about poet John Wesley Gill, who lives in the Sweet Grass Hills, and his struggle to come to grips with the changing West as he also decides to resurrect his writing career through good deeds and very dark ones including murder. The book is a reflection of his travels. Gill's poems define his road experiences and this lyricism is reflected in the narrative that takes him along rough roads that lead to wild, out-of-the-way high plains mayhem and desolate locations.

"I've become a big fan of this amiable mystery series that's mindful of Jonathan and Jennifer Hart of Hart To Hart. It's addictive."- Barthélemy Banks, Mumm's CurseNorm and Catterina Knoll lived in the on Sugarloaf Key in the Florida Keys. They had it made. He had a successful high-end boat dealership and they enjoyed lots of leisure time on the water. Their Friends, Will and Betsy Black often shared the good times with them. Then Catterina was kidnapped. Norm was devastated and moved heaven and earth to get the ransom money ... but everything kept going wrong. Would he ever see his wife alive again? You'll be captivated as this tale unfolds ... where everything is not as it seems and there are plot twists around every corner.

"John Holt's writings make the stark beauty of wilderness lands seem as real as if you're standing there on a high plateau with him. His characters are sunburnt, wind-blistered real. The harsh reality of living off the land offers a pleasure all its own. And death is always a integral part of Holt's landscape."- Nick Teranzi, Online Critics CornerJack Graves lived off the land, hunting and fishing and making his own way in this harsh, dry country that lay well away from cities. Free. Lonesome. No rules. But then his solitude is interrupted. Dark Star helicopters hovering over Mad Woman Gulch. Fires. Dead men. What was happening to his beloved Montana wilderness? Coal mining, that was nature's enemy. Meanwhile, Dark Star went about the business of punching the line through, hopefully before the winter weather, ugly storms screaming down from the arctic, closed in sometime in November. Piles of steel railroad ties, miles of heavy steel track, powerful graders, earth hauling rigs the size of houses, lots of explosives, track-laying machinery, D-11s, all of this stuff began accumulating in the company's yard. Would his life ever be the same?