The Trail of the Lonesome Pine was John Fox Jr.’s first big success, making the bestseller list two years running. The melodrama survives as a curiosity, but it’s too splintered to endure as a novel.
Archive for the ‘Adventure’ Category
Trail of the Lonesome Pine is a curiosity lost in melodrama
Posted in 1908 Bestselling Novels, 1909 Bestselling Novels, Adventure, Romance, tagged Civil War era, Cumberland Gap, John Fox Jr., mining, rural America, steel on November 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Escape Is Impossible to Put Down
Posted in 1939 Bestselling Novels, Adventure, My Top Pics, Psychological novel, Suspense, War on June 10, 2009 | Comments Off
In the opening scene of Escape, a doctor tells actress Emmy Ritter she’ll be able to walk in a week.
“Just in time for my execution,” she replies.
Ethel Vance hooked me with that line, and she didn’t let go until I’d read the rest of her novel that evening.
Authorities refuse to allow Emmy’s son, Mark, [...]
The U[tterly] P[reposterous] Trail
Posted in 1918 Bestselling Novels, Adventure, Historical, Romance, tagged Historical, railroad, Romance, transcontinental, Union Pacific, Western, Zane Grey on December 30, 2008 | Comments Off
The U.P. Trail is a romantic tale of the building of America’s first transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific. Zane Grey weaves all the traditional western cliches into his boy-meets-girl story.
The Golden Hawk Is a Turkey
Posted in 1948 Bestselling Novels, Adventure, Historical, Romance, tagged piracy, pirates, seventheenth century, Spain, West Indies on April 30, 2008 | Comments Off
The Golden Hawk is another bauble on Frank Yerby’s string of best-selling period romances. Yerby sets this one in the West Indies in the 1600s human life was cheap and New World gold plentiful. Everything about this potboiler is totally predictable.
Mailer War Novel Is Hell
Posted in 1948 Bestselling Novels, Adventure, Psychological novel, Suspense, War, tagged battle fatigue, Pacific battles, World War II on April 2, 2008 | Comments Off
The Naked and the Dead follows an army platoon through the terror and boredom of war. Norman Mailer weaves stories of each man’s background into the story of their part in the victory over the Japanese on Anopopei Island.
The Winthrop Woman Makes History Live
Posted in 1958 Bestselling Novels, Adventure, Fictional biography, Historical, My Top Pics, Religious, tagged Puritans, Massachusetts, colonial America, witchcraft, Dutch on February 20, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Historical fiction doesn’t get any better than The Winthrop Woman, Anya Seton’s fascinating tale of Puritan America. The facts, dates, and circumstances are all true. Sexton said the story didn’t need any additions to make it exciting. (She’s right.) She even incorporated characters’ written words into the novel’s dialogue.
Nothing So-So about And So—Victoria
Posted in 1937 Bestselling Novels, Adventure, Historical, My Top Pics, Mystery, Romance, Suspense, tagged English history, Queen Victoria, Hanoveran dynasty on November 7, 2007 | Comments Off
In AND SO—VICTORIA, Vaughan Wilkins packs more “I’ll go to bed after the next chapter” between two covers than a half dozen Gone with the Winds. Wilkins weaves together history, mystery, romance, murder, thrills, and suspense—and he handles each thread deftly.
Northwest Passage Is Half Good Reading
Posted in 1937 Bestselling Novels, Adventure, Historical, tagged American Revolution, French and Indian Wars, Revolutionary War on October 25, 2007 | Comments Off
Northwest Passage is a super novel about the French and Indian Wars and a not-very good novel about political espionage, both between one set of covers.
Prince of Foxes Will Keep You Intrigued
Posted in 1947 Bestselling Novels, Adventure, Historical, My Top Pics, tagged Renaissance, Italy, Cesare Borgia, Italian city states on October 10, 2007 | Comments Off
Prince of Foxes is historical fiction at its swashbuckling best. Samuel Shellabarger sets his tale of a blacksmith’s son who picks up the armor and identify of a fallen cavalier in 1400s Italy when the Borgias were top dogs in the city states.
