Unspeakable - Hardcover

Brown, Sandra

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446519790 ISBN 13: 9780446519793

Publisher: Warner Books, 1998

Synopsis

A drifter working as a ranch hand in East Texas must protect a widow and her young son from the ruthless criminal who is determined to destroy them.

Carl Herbold is a cold-blooded psychopath who has just escaped the penitentiary where he was serving a life sentence. Bent on revenge, he's going back to where he began: Blewer County, Texas.

Born deaf and recently widowed, Anna Corbett fights to keep the ranch that is her son's birthright, unaware that she is at the center of Herbold's horrific scheme -- and that her world of self-imposed isolation is about to explode . . .

When drifter Jack Sawyer arrives at Anna's ranch asking for work, he makes it his mission to protect the innocent woman and her son from Herbold's rage. But Sawyer can't outrun the secrets that stalk him -- or the day of reckoning awaiting them all.

About this title

About the Author

Sandra Brown is the author of seventy-two New York Times bestsellers. There are over eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide, and her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. She lives in Texas. For more information you can visit www.SandraBrown.net.

From the Back Cover

Carl Herbold enjoys being bad. After all, he is terrifyingly good at it. Stimulated by violence, he and his brother, Cecil, had easily graduated from juvenile delinquents to full-blown killers. And Carl, now serving a life sentence in an Arkansas penitentiary, carries out a daring escape with a fellow inmate and is on his way back to where he began - Blewer County Texas. Anna Corbett had been widowed right before her son was born. Beset by debt, deafness and personal tragedy, she faces the toughest challenge of her life - holding on to the ranch that is her son's birthright - unaware that she is at the center of Carl Herbold's vengeful plan... Along with Ezzy Hardge, a retired lawman, who is haunted by the one crime he sacrificed everything to solve but could not... And drifter Jack Sawyer, the seemingly easygoing cowboy whose past is shrouded in mystery. Carl Herbold's prison break draws them inexorably toward a day of reckoning: Ezzy, an over-the-hill peace officer seeking redemption; Jack, a man stalked by dark secrets he can no longer outrun; and Anna, a beautiful woman locked in silence and self-imposed isolation. All must grapple with their own demons before their tumultuous confrontation with a diabolical killer.

Reviews

Styleless and clich-besotted though the works of the queen of Texas melodrama may be, her last novel--1997's Mardi Gras sleaze extravaganza Fat Tuesday--got a first printing of 500,000 and the nod from two book clubs. Here, convicted killer Carl Herbold escapes from Tucker prison and heads for East Texas. Drifter Jack Sawyer, with whom Herbold has a fatal destiny, has also arrived in East Texas and landed a job at a cattle ranch where deaf widow Anna Corbett and five-year-old son David live with her father-in-law--and where the vile acts of Herbold will be played out. Will Sawyer get ``unspeakable'' Anna to speak at last? Most Texans who read this will think these pages, with their strong Texas twang singing through, could have dropped from their own mouths. And they did. (Literary Guild main selection; TV satellite tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

A 20-year-old unsolved murder in a small East Texas town sets the stage for this fast-paced and romantically charged, if stiffly written, thriller, the latest (after Fat Tuesday) from the prolific Brown. Everyone in Blewer, Tex., assumes that the nefarious Herbold brothers, Carl and Cecil, murdered Patsy McCorkle two decades ago, but neither was ever charged with the killing. Carl, the more menacing brother, has spent those decades in an Arkansas prison for an unrelated crime. But now Carl has escaped and Blewer residents fear he might come back to town. Local rancher Delray Corbett has more to fear than mostAthe Herbolds are his estranged stepsons. So when drifter Jack Sawyer swaggers onto Delray's ranch looking for work, Delray hires him, thinking that Jack's presence will ease his mind regarding the safety of his deaf, widowed daughter-in-law, Anna, and her five-year-old son, David. But Delray doesn't know that Jake has a closer connection to Blewer, and to the Corbetts, than he's letting on. Brown's deftly plotted narrative twists and turns without losing hold of its suspense. Her characters are fully fleshed out, and she pays particular attention to Anna's situation as a deaf woman facing ignorance in a rural community. Some graphic sex and violence and the voices of these east Texan good (and bad) ol' boys animate this harrowing tale of crime, revenge and redemption. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Deaf widow Anna Corbett, her young son, and her father-in-law hire a drifter, Jack Sawyer, as a handyman on their small east Texas ranch. There's much to do around the place since Anna's husband died and his two wild stepbrothers were sent up for murder. Patriarch Delray Corbett wants to preserve the ranch despite increasing pressure from a smarmy developer. Jack's a hard worker, and he's deeply attracted to Anna and young David. Meanwhile, evil stepbrother Carl escapes from prison and sets off a chain reaction of robbery, brutality, and murder as he moves ever closer to the Corbett ranch. He's bent on revenge for being nailed by his daddy for a murder he claims he didn't commit. As the story plays out in a maelstrom of death and destruction, it becomes increasingly clear that Jack holds the key to Carl's alibi, an unsolved murder, and the mystery surrounding Anna's self-imposed silence. Brown (Fat Tuesday, LJ 5/1/97) is a master at weaving a story of romance, action, and suspense into a tight web that catches and holds the reader from first page to last. This is sure to be a hit with fans of her previous works and gain her an even wider readership. Highly recommended.
-ASusan Clifford, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Another surefire blockbuster from the phenomenally best-selling Brown, a skilled pop-novelist who calculatedly combines romance with brutality in her steamy, relentless thrillers. Brown writes with vehement vulgarity and extravagant bloodthirstiness when tracking the pillaging, raping, and killing spree performed by her vicious villain, Carl, and his moronic sidekick, Myron, who are cheap and, frankly, shameless knockoffs of the stars of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. She then switches to soft-focus, sexy love-babble as her damsel in distress, a pretty young widow who just happens to be deaf (a disability Brown manages to cast as both heroic and titillating), falls for Jack, the hired hand, a mystery man who appears just prior to the onset of big trouble. The sleazy action begins on both fronts when Carl and Myron break out of prison. News of their escape stirs up old fears and sorrows all across East Texas, causing Ezzy Hardge, the newly and reluctantly retired sheriff, a spate of sleepless nights. Ezzy has been grieving for more than 20 years over the unsolved murder of a notorious young woman, a murder he and everyone else believes Carl committed. The truth is finally revealed after the bloodbath subsides, and after Brown finishes raiding and tarnishing a slew of classic American novels. No matter: people absolutely adore this stuff. Donna Seaman

Edition details

• Publisher: Warner Books
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446519790
• ISBN 13: 9780446519793
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448