Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A Tale out of Luck

Country singer, and national icon, Willie Nelson has teamed up with Mike Blakely to write A Tale out of Luck, a western novel with a bit of a mystery thrown into the mix.

Hank Tomlinson has probably fared better than most Texas Rangers who were suddenly thrown out of work when the Rangers were disbanded in Reconstruction Texas following the Civil War. He operates the Broken Arrow Ranch and owns most of the businesses in Luck, the little town that he founded in order to attract the services that were not in the area when he began his new life as a rancher.Things are going so well, in fact, that he has just brought a Kentucky thoroughbred back to the ranch that he hopes will make him a bundle in breeding fees.

But when Jay Blue, Hank’s son, and Skeeter, the orphan taken in by Hank as a youngster, do a poor job on guard duty one night and the new mare disappears, things change for Hank and the people of Luck, Texas in a big way. Barely one step ahead of Tomlinson and his anger, the boys race off, determined to recover the lost horse, and find themselves in the adventure of their young lives.

Along the way they meet and befriend an albino Negro who captures and tames wild horses for the U.S. Cavalry and a young Apache warrior who has been critically wounded during the massacre of his people by the Calvary and a few ranch hands who were along for the ride, two people who will come to play important roles in their future.

Suddenly the folks in Luck, Texas, are faced with warring Apaches and what appears to be a lone Indian assassin from Tomlinson’s past who makes everyone nervous by peppering two people with arrows and scalping them before disappearing again. When a policeman from Austin comes to town to further complicate matters, things get a little hot for the Tomlinson clan before the book reaches its rousing climax.

Willie Nelson and Mike Blakely have touched most of the Western genre bases with A Tale out of Luck. There are bands of marauding Indians, cavalry troopers racing to the rescue in the nick of time, cattle rustlers, wild horses, a beautiful, world-wise but kindly saloon keeper, a jail escape, a bigger-than-life good guy, and an equally bigger-than-life villain to menace him. The authors combine these elements in a clever way, managing to include a surprise or two, so that the novel is a fresh and fun read even for those who have read dozens of westerns in their day.

A Tale out of Luck hits the bookstores in September and western fans should take a look because Nelson and Blakely make a good team.

Rated at: 3.5

8 comments:

  1. You've been booted out of your blog?

    Is there anything Willie Nelson can't do?

    Not that you can answer me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sam, I assume this means you can read your blog but just can't add to it. I hope it gets straightened out soon. If it helps figure this thing out, for about the past month or so whenever I check on your blog, I get a message at the top of the page that says, "This website wants to run the following add-on: '2007 Microsoft Office component' and once it wouldn't open the site because my computer said it was a security risk. The next day however, it was fine again except for the message at the top. Hope that helps.

    In the meantime, I just heard a few songs from the Willie Nelson/ Wynton Marsalis cd. Willie can team up with just about anyone, can't he?

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  3. Sam- I heard you've been locked. Book-a-rama has been locked too. It sucks. There is a group of people complaining in Blogger Help Group on the Help site. I'm there too.

    You can go into your Layout and put up a message explaining what's going on. One guy has a Twitter feed update on his. I've put up a message on my blog. Come see it if you like.

    Like I said, it sucks, but you're not alone!

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  4. I heard you were locked out of your blog--hope you can still read comments. I hope the folks at blogger get this figured out soon. I feel for you!

    p.s. Love Willie Nelson!

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  5. Carrie, Willie rules, but I won't blame this one on him. :-)

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  6. John, I've tried to research that message that comes up in Explorer and it does appear to be harmless, something to do with updates to the Office suite...a pain in the but, but not a security risk.

    I'm always surprised that so many people still use Explorer considering all the alternatives out there and when something like this happens it catches me by surprise. Thanks for letting me know.

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  7. Chris, thanks for being so proactive concerning this whole mess. I appreciate very much your help.

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  8. Thanks for the kind words, Gentle Reader...looks like the storm is over for now.

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I always love hearing from you guys...that's what keeps me book-blogging. Thanks for stopping by.