The hot country : a Christopher Marlowe Cobb thriller

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Title:

The hot country : a Christopher Marlowe Cobb thriller

Author:

Butler, Robert Olen, author.

Series:

Christopher Marlowe Cobb ;

Series Number:

Summary:

While covering the Mexican civil war in the spring of 1914, a newspaper correspondent, Kit, falls in love with a young laundress and enlists the help of a pickpocket to determine who attempted to shoot a priest.

Edition:

1st ed.

Physical Description:

326 p. ; 24 cm.

Genre:

Thrillers (Fiction)

Detective and mystery fiction.

Historical fiction.

Subject Term:

War correspondents -- Fiction.

Americans -- Mexico -- Fiction.

Journalists -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Mexico -- History -- Revolution, 1910-1920 -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Mysterious Press,

Publication Date:

2012

ISBN:

9780802120465

Publication Information:

New York : Mysterious Press, c2012.

Call Number:

BUTLER

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607002715558	Adult Fiction	BUTLER Robert Olen	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

In The Hot Country , Christopher Marlowe Cobb ("Kit"), the swashbuckling early 20th century American newspaper war correspondent travels to Mexico in April and May of 1914, during that country's civil war, the American invasion of Vera Cruz and the controversial presidency of Victoriano Huerta, El Chacal (The Jackal). Covering the war in enemy territory and sweltering heat, Cobb falls in love with Luisa, a young Mexican laundress, who is not as innocent as she seems.

The intrepid war reporter soon witnesses a priest being shot. The bullet rebounds on the cross the holly man wears around his neck and leaves him unharmed. Cobb employs a young pickpocket to help him find out the identity of the sniper and, more importantly, why important German officials are coming into the city in the middle of the night from ammunition ships docked in the port.

An exciting tale of intrigue and espionage, Butler's powerful crime-fiction debut is a thriller not to be missed.

Author Notes

Robert Olen Butler is a novelist, screenwriter, educator, and short-story writer who grew up in Granite City, Illinois.

Butler served in Vietnam. Following the Vietnam War, Butler began writing. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, The Paris Review, and The Saturday Review, as well as in four annual editions of the Best American Short Stories and six annual editions of New Stories of the South. A collection of his stories, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Butler's novels include The Alleys of Eden, Countrymen of Bones, and Sun Dogs. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. Butler also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He teaches creative writing at McNeese State University.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Pulitzer Prize-winner Butler's ambitious first crime novel introduces Christopher Marlowe "Kit" Cobb, an American war correspondent who has come to Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1914 to cover the country's civil war. A passionate believer in the power of a free press and the moral superiority of the United States, Kit is no mere observer. He assumes a false identity to pursue German diplomat Friedrich von Mensinger en route to a meeting with revolutionary leader Pancho Villa, and the correspondent soon finds himself up to his neck in political intrigue. The large cast includes laundress Luisa Morales, a pretty senorita with whom Kit becomes romantically involved; Gerhard Vogel, an American-born German soldier; and a resourceful pickpocket, Diego, who acts as Kit's eyes and ears. A fine stylist, Butler (A Small Hotel) renders the time and place in perfect detail, though readers should be prepared for a sluggish plot that lingers over the minutiae of the political machinations. Agent: Warren Frazier, John Hawkins & Associates. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

Pulitzer Prize-winner Butler is a restless, questing writer whose topics and style vary widely from book to book. His 13th novel (after A Small Hotel) is his first spy thriller, and it's good. When crack reporter Christopher Marlowe Cobb lands in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in April 1914, he finds no war to report on. American troops are on the ground, but President Woodrow Wilson seems reluctant to move them. The Germans, sensing an advantage in the Mexican resentment of Americans, dispatch a secret emissary to woo Pancho Villa to their side. Can Kit stop him? VERDICT The plot clips along, and Kit is an attractive hero. But Butler writes action scenes almost too well: the stream-of-consciousness tone doesn't mesh with the novel's punchy prose style and Kit's ironic asides. But this is a minor criticism in an otherwise enjoyable novel that should attract devotees of espionage and historical fiction. Let's hope we see more of Kit Cobb, reluctant hero. [See Prepub Alert, 4/30/12.]-David Keymer, Modesto CA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.