Under Tower Peak: A Tommy Smith High Country Noir, Book One (1) - Hardcover

Paul, Bart

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1611458366 ISBN 13: 9781611458367

Publisher: Arcade, 2013

Synopsis

After two tours as a sniper in Iraq, Tommy Smith has returned to his former life as a cowboy and wilderness guide in California’s Sierra Nevada, hoping to reclaim the simplicity of his youth and heal the wounds the world can’t see. When, high on a mountain pass, he and his partner find the wrecked plane of a billionaire adventurer who disappeared months earlier, a seemingly innocent act triggers a breathtaking cycle of violence that threatens Tommy’s world. Soon he is enmeshed in the struggle between the billionaire’s trophy wife and wannabe drug lord son and their allies. Every effort to set things right draws him deeper into a bad situation and closer to needing those deadly skills that he had hoped to leave behind forever.

With lean, efficient prose and dialogue that crackles with repartee, Bart Paul has written a contemporary thriller of steadily mounting suspense and ruthless action. He captures both the beauty of the high mountain wilderness and the laconic rhythms of the outfitters’ lives. In Tommy Smith he offers a protagonist whose cool competence, home-grown decency, and clarity of purpose in the face of danger suggest a brotherhood with heroes from the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Cormac McCarthy.
 

About this title

About the Author

Bart Paul is the author of TV documentaries, short stories, the biography Double-Edged Sword: The Many Lives of Hemingway’s Friend, the American Matador Sidney Franklin, and the novels in his Tommy Smith High Country Noir series, including Under Tower Peak, Cheatgrass, and See That My Grave Is Kept Clean..Throughout his school years, he spent summers working on cattle ranches and pack outfits in California’s Eastern Sierra. After living in Southern California for many years, he now divides his time between Bridgeport, California, near Yosemite, and Smith Valley, Nevada—the ranching country of his novels.

Reviews

*Starred Review* Paul’s story bounces off the Steve Fossett mystery of 2008, when the businessman and aviator disappeared with his plane over the Sierra Nevadas. High in the mountains, Paul’s narrator, Iraq War vet Tommy Smith, and his partner, Lester Wendover, stumble upon a plane wreck that has eluded myriad searchers. That’s how the Fossett case developed, but then Paul spins his story in new directions. Unknown to Tommy, none-too-bright Lester steals a fancy watch from the pilot’s body, as well as several thousand dollars from a suspicious sack of cash. Before Tommy can put a lid on things, return the loot, and report the accident, Lester and his girlfriend have contacted lawyers and (unknown to them) criminals across the U.S., seeking a reward and their 15 minutes of fame. Lawyers from L.A. and thugs from Miami are soon crawling all over the mountains, and bodies start piling up—until Tommy and Lester, ignoring legal counsel, decide to dismantle the plane and hide components all down the mountain. This almost solves the problem of their involvement, but the thugs keep coming even as former-sniper Tommy cuts them down. He’ll have to find out what they’re after before his mountains become peaceful again. A superior blend of thriller and contemporary western, full of gun lore and with a fine appreciation of the Sierra Nevada wilderness. And Paul’s spare, reflective style recalls Hemingway. --John Mort

Edition details

• Publisher: Arcade
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1611458366
• ISBN 13: 9781611458367
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288