The Hot Country (Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller, 1) - Hardcover

Butler, Robert Olen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802120466 ISBN 13: 9780802120465

Publisher: Mysterious Press, 2012

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Olen Butler is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of twelve novels, six story collections, and a book on the creative process, From Where You Dream. A recipient of both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant, he also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and has received two Pushcart Prizes. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University.

Review

"This high-spirited adventure by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler is an antic concoction of genre clichés, literary sendups, personal homages, fanciful history and passages of great writing." New York Times Book Review

"It's an exciting story, much of it based on fact, and Butler has a good time with it. His writing is both crisp and thoughtful, his people ring true and he offers an amusing portrait of a golden age in journalism. . . . The Hot Country is a thinking person's thriller, the kind of exotic adventure that, in better days, would have been filmed by Sam Peckinpah." Washington Post

"Butler takes an often-overlooked chapter of history and turns it into a whip-smart tale of intrigue and espionage." CNN.com

A high-spirited adventure.” Charlotte Observer

Enjoyable novel that should attract devotees of espionage and historical fiction.” Library Journal

A fine stylist, Butler renders the time and place in perfect detail.” Publishers Weekly

"An awfully good read." Criminal Intent

"[The Hot Country is] Robert Olen Butler’s fast-paced entrée into adventure tales. Add a little Indiana Jones and you get the picture: a smart guy also handy with his fists and firearms, burdened with a dedication to finding out the truth." Plaza de Armas

Pancho Villa, fiery senoritas, and Germans up to no good Robert Olen Butler is having fun in The Hot Country and readers will too. An intelligent entertainment with colorful history.” Joseph Kanon, New York Times bestselling author of The Good German and Istanbul Passage

The Hot Country is a spirited and beautifully told tale of adventure and intrigue in the grand old style, rich in both insight and atmosphere. Going off to war with Kit Cobb is as bracing and fun as it used to be in George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman books, or in Perez-Reverte’s Captain Alatriste novels. And the best part is that there are more to come. Saddle up.” Dan Fesperman, Hammett award-winning author of The Double Game

About this edition

• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0802120466
• ISBN 13: 9780802120465
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336