The year is 1973, and the
last of America's soldiers are returning home from Vietnam, often shouted down
and spat upon by protesters, while the first toxic cracks of public mistrust
have begun to appear at the highest levels of government. The American Indian
Movement has entered into a bloody occupation of Wounded Knee, gas shortages
have pushed the economy into deep recession, and violent civil unrest is
captured in living color and televised nightly on the evening news. But rural
Meriwether County, tucked away amid the sweeping river valleys and serrated
mountain ridges of southern Oregon has been left largely untouched by time.
Until now. Cattle rancher Ty Dawson, a complex man tormented by elements of his
own past, is involuntarily conscripted to assist local law enforcement when a
herd of wild mustangs is rounded up and corralled in anticipation of a
government auction, igniting the passions of political activist Teresa Pineu,
who threatens to fan the flames of an uprising that grows rapidly out of control.
As the past collides with the present, and hostility escalates into brutality
and bloodshed, Ty is drawn into a complex web of predatory alliances and
corruption where he must choose to stand and fight, or watch as the last
remnants of the American West are consumed in a lawless conflagration of
avarice and cruelty. Set against the rugged backdrop of Oregon's vast
ranchlands, South California Purples is a novel of loyalty, passion and murder,
as seen through the eyes of a cast of unforgettable characters and crafted with
lyrical prose and dialogue. It is the first in a new series that weaves
together the sometimes poignant, often violent, strains of the 1970s and the
human costs of a nation in transition.
South California Purples
(Western/Thriller)
By Baron R. Birtcher
ISBN #978-1579625009
Price $28.00 (hardback)
248 Pages
Earing 4-Stars
Cattle are being killed on
ranches in Meriwether County in Oregon, and the corpse show strange injuries.
Now the government is rounding up mustangs for auction, and government activist,
Teresa Pineu has asked for help from a motorcycle gang, who are camping on her
property. The sheriff conscripts Ty Dawson, a former captain in the military
police during the Korean War, to help in law enforcement. It’s 1973, and the
Vietnam War is winding down, Watergate is on the news, and the American Indian
Movement has occupied Wounded Knee, and things are getting bloody everywhere.
The sheriff is afraid the same thing will happen in Meriwether County.
The story is told in Three
Parts; Part One, the first 62 pages sets the story up, introducing most of the
main characters. The author’s writing is topnotch, but the first 62 pages were
so slow I almost didn’t bother with the rest of the book. It does pick up speed
with Parts Two and Three, but I didn’t find it as entertaining as HARD
LATITUDES, his previous novel I read. Still, it is an interesting novel that
depicts a slowly dying American way of life, when cowboys still rode the range
on horseback instead of helicopters. Highly recommended.
Tom
Johnson
Author
of HAUNTED MESA
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