A Place Called Rainwater - Hardcover

Garlock, Dorothy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786251727 ISBN 13: 9780786251728

Publisher: G K Hall & Co, 2003

Synopsis

The small town of Rainwater, Oklahoma, has become a notorious boomtown now that a gusher has flooded its streets with drillers, welders and roustabouts of every description. Jill, a spunky and hard-working young woman who runs the hotel for her aunt, is unprepared to cope with the attention she receives from the woman-hungry men. Despite her attempts to thwart their advances she finds herself cornered by a group of men on the street one afternoon when Thad Taylor, a young neighbour, comes to her rescue. Believing Jill to be a "street flapper", Thad makes it his duty to curb her wild ways. Jill wants nothing to do with Thad - until a woman is murdered in town. Now, Jill's finally accepted Thad's protection...but is she willing to accept more?

About this title

About the Author

A consistent award winner, Dorothy Garlock has received eight awards from Affaire de Coeur and six from Romantic Times, including the 1996 Historical Storyteller of the Year. She lives in Clear Lake, Iowa.

From Publishers Weekly

The Midwest in the 1920s is the setting for this romantic melodrama featuring the spunky, independent little sister of Julie Jones, the heroine of another Garlock novel, The Edge of Town. Jill Jones has recently come from Missouri to the boomtown of Rainwater, Okla., to help her ailing Aunt Justine run her hotel, a former house of ill repute. Shortly after her arrival, her flirtatious childhood friend and self-appointed protector, Thad Taylor, shows up and sweet-talks his way into a job. He is wary of the attention Jill is receiving from some of the other men in town, including Hunter Westfall, a womanizing oil tycoon, and Lloyd Madison, a creepy lawyer with "the mark of the devil" on his face and a longstanding vendetta against Justine. There are scads of supporting characters, including Radna, Justine's devoted mixed-race housekeeper, and Laura Hopper, an attractive young widow who catches Westfall's eye. Things turn grim when Thad and Jill discover the remains of a badly mutilated young woman buried in the sand. The detailed depiction of the Oklahoma oil town lends an air of authenticity, as does the colorful (if at times overdone) period slang. Garlock is most entertaining when she focuses on the love affairs percolating among the cast members, but the murder-mystery subplot feels out of place and the identity of the killer is obvious from the beginning. Overproduction may be cramping Garlock's style-her last novel, High on a Hill, came out in June of this year.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: G K Hall & Co
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0786251727
• ISBN 13: 9780786251728
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 541