DEATH BY NECESSITY (SAM PARKER SERIES Book 2)

Melville Mystery Cannot Be Stifled By New Biography

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Sadly, I think this book is getting lots of awards. I was hoping for someone who wouldn't rely on hollow assumptions and actually delve into this really interesting part of American history. I guess that's too much to ask. Jul 27, Max rated it it was amazing Shelves: Hard hitting, rugged and raw history that feels chillingly authentic. Neither the white man nor red man comes out well in this retelling of the brutal collision of the Comanche and relentlessly expanding America. I was quickly disabused of any idyllic notions. Well written, detailed and informative, highly recommended for anyone who wants to know how the West was really won.

Odd and End Thoughts: I fall into the latter group. That nomadic hunter gatherers were ruthless is hardly unusual. This book definitely strikes a nerve in some. These reactions may say as much about how non-native Americans view themselves and their legacy as the Comanche. I seem to remember from school that the white man killed all the buffalo thereby starving the Indians out of their native existence. Interestingly, Cynthia Ann Parker who had been captured by the Comanche at the age of 9 was adopted by a Comanche family and married a Comanche chief could never adapt back to life in white America when taken back by her relatives at the age of She always tried to run away to return to her hardscrabble Comanche life and nomadic home in the wilds of the plains.

Sorry, couldn't make the HTML work for me to show the above images. Jul 15, David Ober rated it did not like it Shelves: Popular history is a strange genre that often seems suspended between genuine academic rigor and amateurish quackery. For every book of popular history written by a well regarded historian and aimed at educating the general public, there are at least a hundred written by a layperson that, even if he or she does the appropriate amount of footwork, usually ends up reproducing antiquated historical narratives.

While a professor of history might understand how to read nuance into old sources, an ama Popular history is a strange genre that often seems suspended between genuine academic rigor and amateurish quackery. While a professor of history might understand how to read nuance into old sources, an amateur too often takes the word of a writer from the past at his or her word.

I knew little about Empire of the Summer Moon when I picked it up, except that it provided a lengthy history of the Comanche tribe alone with a recounting of the raid of the Parker family homestead, an incident that would go on to influence the John Wayne and John Ford film The Searchers.

While reading the book, however, something seemed off. There was a certain leering quality to the way in which Gwynne described Comanche violence. Across the centuries and over the course of many wars between whites and Native-Americans, atrocities were of course committed on both sides. But I soon realized that the language and the manner in which Gwynne decontextualized Comanche violence presaged a shockingly racist book. Even after this early warning sign, I continued to read, expecting popular history to offer its usual Eurocentric bias. The attitudes and beliefs that Gwynne espouses about the Comanche people are almost certainly relics of the 19th century, and it became a fascinating, if at times deplorable example, of how 19th century discourse has survived into the 21st century.

Like many writing in the 19th century, Gwynne represents the Comanche as a chronological throwback, an image of Europeans translated back into time. This pattern repeats itself again and again in the book. Any cultural development that does not eventually lead to Anglo-American style agriculture and socio-political institutions are perceived as headed in the wrong direction.

While Gwynne manages to acknowledge Comanche skill at riding, he simultaneously robs them of the ability to reason when discussing the Comanche horse culture. Gwynne never provides a full and complete image of contemporaneous white culture. He seems mostly concerned with comparing military technological and tactical differences between American settlers and whites like a lot of popular history, Gwynne is often obsessed over military matters to the exclusion of the social, cultural, and economic.

He decries how the Comanche treat their women, which is certainly fair enough. But he never notes that because of coverture laws, women in antebellum America had the legal status of property. He lingers on images of Comanche violence, but nowhere does he discuss the fact that American settlers in Texas were importing slavery and its systemic sins of forced labor, torture, rape, and extra-legal execution.

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Nowhere does he mention that the violence of slavery imposed by whites dwarfed the violence committed by the Comanche on almost every level. This is an outdated term popularized in the sciences by Lewis H. Morgan, John Lubbock, and Frederich Engels, all 19th century scientists. And if Gwynne were more familiar with academic research about Native-Americans, then he would realize that the image of Native-Americans as a culture of Adams and Eves has been out of fashion for decades.

We like to think that language and ideas are always changing, moving forward and, ideally, improving. But the inertia of discourse suggests that backwards concepts from the past will remain with us unless there is a strong concerted effort to push against them. Aug 27, Brian rated it did not like it. So far I am extremely disappointed in this book. I picked it up after Having finished " Bury my heart at wounded knee " amazing novel and similarly was expecting a more honest , transparent view of the Indian American wars.

However so far the labels savage , primitive And violent have all been assigned to the Comanches. Gwynne highlights the violence toward settlers without explaining that these same settlers were stealing native lands with no restraint much less remorse. They were also driv So far I am extremely disappointed in this book. They were also driving the buffalo to near extinction but Gwynne attributes this to "profound change" by "opportunistic men".

Gwynne is so quick to demonize the comanches but neglects to reveal that Slavery was alive And well in texas. Texas was notorious for harsh oppression towards blacks , and mexicans. Moreover In th century Texas women were legal property of their husband. Hence they were often abused and lived lonely lives. Not so much with the Comanches but with numerous other tribes women who had been kid napped by natives and later CHOSE to stay with their captors!

There is a famous painting of an exchange between Delaware indians and settlers and the children of the settlers refuse to return to their former Lives! Furthermore Gwynne dares to make the case that historians have " often refused even to Acknowledge that the white women had been victims of abuse ". Nothing could be further from the truth , American historians will often emphasize so called merciless attacks from Indians and always seem to ignore that the u.

Sand creed Massacre , The murdering of navajo women in children in a slanted horse race, and wounded knee come to mind, however it is very convenient of Gwynne to not expand on topics of white brutality which categorized the Indian American wars. I challenge those who praise this story to read primary native sources to understand this situation in a better light.

All the sources complied by Gwynne come from white settlers. Lastly Gwynne fails to acknowledge that Red Clouds "Ogala Siox" was the first nation to militarily defeat the United States on the field of battle, forcing them to sign a peace treaty. This happened in , and is well documented, which can be clearly seen in the fact that tensions came to a breaking point over such treaties in the take over of wounded knee in Instead Gwynee makes the ludicrous claim that the Comanche were the only ones with enough gall to resist the U.

S government Even worse are reviews claiming Gwynne remains neutral. On page 43 Gwynne clearly states "it is impossible for me not to make moral judgements about these people" he highlights Comanche violence and then judges them with vivid descriptions and strong accusations. In terms of the Parker family he claims they are "righteous, hard nosed, innocent " even says they played their sweet little fiddles at night painting a perfect picture of an innocent child dealing with a wild savage.

It's disturbing so many love this book, I guess most are uneducated in the subject of American Indian wars and have personal bias dating way back to their ancestors. The fact this book became a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize highlights the issue westerners have with their own brutal history ; They refuse to be honest. Gwynne does in Empire of the Summer Moon. Marshall, while perhaps because of his own ethnicity, does not only write of the war, weapons and carnage of the combatants but also of their cultures and the backdrops and backgrounds of what led to and obtained during war.

Worse, because Empire of the Summer Moon is really only about war, the bias becomes even more dramatically conspicuous. In Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Jack Weatherford does not sugarcoat the ruthlessness of the Mongol army or its conquering of sometimes truly innocents subjugates.

However, it also considers the social structure, culture and Mongol human nature albeit quite different from that of most westerners even of that time. Truly, the book often paints a pretty grizzly picture of events but, lord, at least it seemed balanced. Gwynne does not seem to even try to write dispassionately in any kind of historically accurate and unbiased manner. Perhaps most appalling are the remarks of a typical reviewer of this book: The book is informative, factually accurate and entertaining. Had this book a scintilla of accuracy, to call the book entertaining is more than a little abominable.

Mar 18, Tripp rated it it was amazing. I can't decide whether this book is the best nonfiction I have read all year, or whether it is the best in the past few years. This is the sort of book that rises above its subject matter, thanks to narrative pace, blending in of context and the quality of the writing. The book tells the story of the Comanche Empire which, having mastered horse warfare, defeated all enemies until the late 19th century. It took the US decades to find a way to defeat them. Much of the story is of two cultures clash I can't decide whether this book is the best nonfiction I have read all year, or whether it is the best in the past few years.

Much of the story is of two cultures clashing. Part of that clash is social. The Texan and then American settlers believed in staking out private claims, while the Comanche believed in roaming free. Another part is military. The Comanche based their combat around the use of the horse. The Texan and American way was to fight on foot. In the initial clashes, the Comanche way was superior. The American side prevailed in part, because it evolved its military approach faster. Another more disquieting part of the story highlights another of the book's great strengths. The Comanche, like many Native American peoples, tortured their enemies.

Unlike the Eastern tribes, the Plains tribes also used rape as a weapon. Gwynne does not hold back in describing how common this practice was. He equally describes the horrors inflicted upon tribal villages by Texan and American vigilantes and by troops. I've rarely seen a writer take such an evenhanded approach to atrocity.

The book delves into many subjects including reservation policy, the settling drive with its parallels to the West Bank, the import of the Colt pistol, and the way that the US can turn its villains into its grand statesmen. If this one is in your reading pile, move it to the top. Jul 19, Curtis Seven rated it it was amazing Shelves: I'm not sure that comparing the fights against the Commanche in Texas to the Sioux Wars is really a topic that will bring a universal agreement as to who fought best and so on. The description of the tactics used by the Commanche in their fights and their horsemanship are identical to accounts of the fights in the northern plains and the skills of the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne.

The Sioux and Commanche share some common things as both were horse tribes, they both drove other tribes from the bes I'm not sure that comparing the fights against the Commanche in Texas to the Sioux Wars is really a topic that will bring a universal agreement as to who fought best and so on. The Sioux and Commanche share some common things as both were horse tribes, they both drove other tribes from the best hunting grounds and were brutal at times, then both used horses as a symbol of power, and they actually used relatively similar guerrilla techniques.

The span of time of active conflict was apparently different with the Southern Indians being destroyed and forced onto reservations first before the Lakota their allies were later in the century. My point is that whether you dispute which fought best is at best a distraction each has it's own unique story to tell. Assertions that one was greater than the other just strike me as that, assertions and I'm just not sure this book makes the case or profits by it. All the same it's an important topic and book I'd recommend I'm sure there are lots of opinion to counter balance mine as well.

Apr 19, Myke Cole rated it it was amazing. Easily one of the best works of narrative nonfiction I have ever read, and buttressing my strongly held belief that non-historians write the best works of history. He provides a har Easily one of the best works of narrative nonfiction I have ever read, and buttressing my strongly held belief that non-historians write the best works of history. He provides a hard and frank look at the Comanche Wars of the late 19th C. What a fantastic book. Texas Ranger, Comanche war parties, white settlers with cornflower blue eyes.

This book is about the Comanche, one of the most powerful and warlike tribes of the American Southwest. It actually covers several separate "stories" over the course of the book. First, there is the history of the Comanche people themselves from their earliest beginnings to their final fate as reservation Indians, plains warriors made to become farmers. There are a lot of chapters about warfare between the Comanche, other Indian tribes, and the Spanish and the Americans, and woven through it, th This book is about the Comanche, one of the most powerful and warlike tribes of the American Southwest.

There are a lot of chapters about warfare between the Comanche, other Indian tribes, and the Spanish and the Americans, and woven through it, the stories of Cynthia Ann Parker, one of the most famous white women of the Old West who was captured as a child by the Comanche, raised as one of their own, later was "rescued" actually recaptured by whites, and lived a miserable life in captivity as the celebrated ex-squaw of a Comanche war chief. Her son, however, was more famous still - Quanah Parker, last of the Comanche chiefs, first and only "Chief of Chiefs" in a tribe that had no precedent for such a title , a "reformed" Indian warrior who once murdered and scalped his way across the American Southwest, but later became a politician, a school board member, and as he told a Texas State Fair crowd towards the end of his life, "A taxpayer, just like you.

Empire of the Summer Moon has been highly praised and rated, and nearly won a Pulitzer. It's a good book, well-written and interesting and full of fascinating, sometimes gruesome, stories. But it's also been heavily criticized. A lot of Native Americans, unsurprisingly, do not like its depiction of the Comanche. Here on Goodreads, many people have given it poor ratings because of "racism, colonialism," etc. We as Americans suffer enormous collective guilt over what we did to the Indians. Nowadays, it is hardly even debatable that we committed atrocities and stole their land.

The fact that this is just the way things were done a few centuries ago, and we're only now, worldwide, shifting to a global society that kinda sorta no longer approves of bigger, more technologically advanced countries invading smaller countries and taking their land and subjugating their populations just because they can, does not seem to mitigate the "original sin" of America's founding.

And Canada and basically every other country in the Western hemisphere. So understandably, when talking about how "savage," "primitive," and "bloodthirsty" some Indians were, it raises hackles today. Those are loaded terms, and S. Gwynne uses them a lot. He repeatedly refers to the Comanche as "stone-aged" and observes that they had "no sense of history," "lacked the elaborate social structure of other tribes," and so on.

It is not done in an intentionally patronizing way, and he certainly describes the atrocities and corruption for which Texas and the United States for much of the book, the two are not synonymous, and the Comanche most certainly drew a distinction between the hated "Texans" and everyone else were responsible. Despite what some people have written, this is not a Comanche-bashing book or one that says White Man good, Indian bad.

The problem is, the things Gwynne says are objectively true. The Comanche were a stone-aged civilization notwithstanding their eventual acquisition of firearms, which they could not repair or maintain, only knew how to use. And I'll just say this: Comanches were terrible people. I don't mean by that that every single Comanche was evil, or that whatever their faults as a society, that justified white people exterminating them and taking their land.

But let's be clear - the Comanche, like most of the plains tribes, were vicious. They fought to the death, and captives were routinely gang-raped and tortured to death. As Gwynne points out, this set them apart from Eastern Indians, who also frequently practiced torture, but not so much rape. Plains warfare was brutal and merciless. But if you believe there is such a thing as objective right and wrong, if you have any qualms at all about cultural relativism, then you have to have qualms about a civilization in which it is a social norm to rape and torture to death anyone who's not of your tribe.

And make no mistake, the Comanche and their neighbors were doing this long before Europeans came to the New World, it's not something they were taught by the White Man. The "Noble Savage" myth, which Gwynne describes being very much alive during the 19th century, often hindered how the United States dealt with the Comanche because many Americans, including members of Congress, genuinely believed that the Indians were only warlike and vicious in response to white provocations, and that if they were dealt with fairly and peacefully, they would also be peaceful, good neighbors.

Their entire history said otherwise. The Comanche were never going to settle down and stop raiding or raping and torturing captives until forced to. How exactly we should have gone about this, or whether we should have even been there to try, is another question. And certainly once the pattern started, of Comanches committing atrocities upon whites just as they had upon the Mexicans, and the Apaches and the Kiowa and the Navajo and many other tribes , whites committed atrocities right back.

One can kind of understand how Texans faced with Comanche aggression came to believe that "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" even while being appalled at the sentiment. There weren't really any "good guys" but there also weren't any clear cut "bad guys. It's easy to see how this book raises conflicting feelings and some strong reactions. One of the criticisms I will say is more valid is that Gwynne only seemed to consult historical records by Americans and other Europeans. There are still Comanche alive today.

I would have liked to have heard their own version of their tribe's history, and I may search out any available sources. I don't know if modern Comanche dispute the early settlers' accounts of their ancestors' savagery, or if they claim it was justified in response to white encroachment on their land, or if they also accept that this was the way things were back then, and that it's better that that way of life is gone.

All of that being said Empire of the Summer Moon was very educational, and you'll surely learn a lot whether or not you agree with the author's viewpoint. And to be clear, most of what I say above is my viewpoint - the author tries to stay more or less objective, though at times it's hard to be non-judgmental about the extremely gruesome and sadistic way in which the Comanche treated captives. The Comanche, "primitive" or not, were not stupid. They practiced brilliant strategy and could be brave, sneaky, and adaptable as the situation required. They started as true primitives, but like most plains tribes, it was the arrival of the horse, first brought by the Spanish, that transformed them.

The horse was not a native to North America, but by the time the Texans and America had to contend with the Comanche, the Comanche had been horseback riders for hundreds of years and it was in their blood. We often assume today that battles between soldiers and Indians were always one-sided affairs except when, as at Little Big Horn, the Indians had overwhelming superiority in numbers.

But in fact, early on the Indians were far superior militarily to the Europeans and Americans. While guns certainly gave the white man an advantage Indians would buy, trade, or steal for firearms, but could never produce or maintain them , early firearms were no match for Comanche bows, that were deadly out to 20 or 30 yards and could be fired many times faster than the single-shot muskets and carbines of the bluecoats.

Also, at first the Texans practiced European warfare tactics - dismount to face a charging enemy with your guns.

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Against mounted cavalry like the Comanche, this was suicide. The Comanche had a vast "empire" and rightly perceived Texas as encroaching upon it. So when the two civilizations met, it was inevitable that there would be bloody warfare, and at first, whites were unprepared for just how numerous and powerful the Comanche were. For a time they actually turned back westward expansion and rolled back the frontier.

Several more times in the 19th century, before the Comanche were pacified for good, they would break out of their reservations and quietude and go on a rampage that would practically shut down all commerce and throw the entire West into a panic. The Comanche led to the formation of the Texas Rangers - a small force whose size and exploits may have been exaggerated, but which nonetheless was the first truly effective Indian-fighting force in the West.

They learned to hunt, track, and fight Indian style, and when supplied with what was at first an obscure new invention that no one else wanted - the Colt 6-shooter - they suddenly had weapons that could truly let them fight the Comanche on their terms. Though they also made frequent mistakes, usually more diplomatic than military. For example, they considered taking white women captive, raping and torturing them, and then ransoming them back to be just normal business practice, and probably never really understood just how implacably this set white men against them. I did have a bit of a problem with the titular premise of the book - that the Comanche ruled an "empire," akin perhaps to the Mayans or the Aztecs.

In fact, as Gwynne points out, the Comanche were divided into five or six large "bands" who considered themselves all one people, but were led by different chiefs, none of whom had authority over the others, and there was no grand council coordinating all Comanche at least not until the Quanah Parker era, and then only nominally. This was a mistake whites frequently made - they would negotiate a peace treaty with one particular band of Comanches, and think they had signed a treaty with the entire Comanche tribe, when in fact all the other Comanche neither knew nor cared about any agreements with some other band.

And the Comanche were also unlike the Navajo about whom I know a little or most of the other well-known large tribes, in that, as Gwynne says, they had little in the way of art, culture, history, or formal tribal structure. That is not to say they had no art or culture, or that their tribes were run anarchistically, but they really were quite "primitive," even compared to other Indians.

So to speak of a Comanche "empire" seems to be a bit of an exaggeration - what the Comanche actually had was a very large territory over which they hunted and raided and were the acknowledged lords of the plains, until the white man came along. The latter part of the book is mostly about Quanah Parker.

Quanah, the half-white, half-Comanche son of Cynthia Ann Parker from whom he was separated at age 12, never to see her again , was a truly remarkable individual. Described as a giant among Comanche and unusually strong and intelligent, he suffered some prejudice for his white blood but proved himself over and over again to be a better Comanche than any of his detractors. The Comanche also were not particularly racial purists - it had long been their practice to capture children from other tribes, and the Mexicans, and then the whites, to raise as their own, supposedly in part because Comanche women, spending long, hard years on horseback themselves, had a very low fertility rate.

He become a notorious war leader, and hated his mother's people, the Texans, in particular. This is another one of those great contradictions we are confronted with. Quanah Parker, later in life, became feted and celebrated as a "civilized" Indian. He adapted to his life as a homeowner and a celebrity and a politician, was fascinated by new technology, owning a telephone and an automobile.

DEATH BY NECESSITY (SAM PARKER SERIES Book 2)

He was friends with Teddy Roosevelt. But this same man had once ridden the plains and raided white settlements. There is no documented evidence that Quanah personally raped and tortured anyone, but he was known to harbor a vicious hatred for white settlers, he led Comanche war parties, and this was what Comanche war parties did. So, you can draw your own conclusions. Quanah sensibly refused to go into those sorts of details later in life. In summary, this was a fascinating, somewhat flawed book.

It told me a lot of things about the Comanche, some of which I realize I need to treat with some skepticism until I read some other primary sources. It has at least inspired me to go looking for other books on the same subject from which I might get other perspectives. Jun 15, Marcelle rated it it was ok. It's interesting, I'll give it that. And I'm learning more than I thought I would. But I'm over half way through the book and Quanah Parker hasn't risen past the toddler stage. I got so frustrated just waiting for his mother's story to finish that I googled her to cut to the chase.

Much of it is repetitive. Chapter 1, the Comanches were bad - stab, burn, rape, kill, steal. Chapter 2, the Comanches were bad - stab, burn, rape, kill, steal. It does nothing to move the plot forward. The It's interesting, I'll give it that. The author points out that the Texans weren't much better - I'm just grateful I wasn't born then and there. Every time he introduces a new character, he goes back in time and then ends it at their death and then jumps back to that one time in band camp and digresses to someone else and GAH!

I need my history to be linear! When someone dies in Chapter 2, it doesn't help to revive them to collaborate what someone else says in Chapter It just makes the history seem more like a bunch of anecdotes and confuses the hell out of me so that I'm not certain who did what when and where.

It needs more maps than the simple one in the beginning that lacks quite a bit of info. Especially when you are talking about particular battles and movements. Maybe if I was a Texan and knew my state history, this wouldn't be problem. As noted on the blurb on this book's cover, S. Gwynne has chronicled a history of the Comanches, "the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. They became the best horsemen in the world and the military masters of the south plains. Among Native Americans, they excelled at horse breeding, breaking, riding and stealing. This last activity was far from the least important aspect of the Comanches' lives.

All Comanche warriors had their herds of horses; they were a measure of wealth as well as the means to move families around the plains, and to mount raiding parties. It was necessary to constantly add new stock to replace horses lost in battles as well as those traded and sold. Another tribal need was based on the low birth rates of the Comanches and the deaths of young men in wars. The Comanche simply couldn't survive as a tribal unit without constantly finding horses, and taking captives in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico.

The book's immediate timeline starts at the period encompassing the arrival of the Americans into Texas in the 's, as Gwynne states, shouldering their way up the Colorado, Guadalupe, Trinity and Brazos rivers, and over two decades, moving into the Indian hunting grounds, starting with the Cheyenne territories. Over several decades, the Americans increased their numbers dramatically, especially after the Texas Republic was established following the defeat of the Mexican army in As Gwynne notes p.

Many such encounters transpired on the Texas plains, often with tragic results. Gwynne pulls no punches in describing the horrible fate encountered by settler families overtaken in their homes by Comanches. But this book is not just an excellent history of those times. It is also a story of the offspring of a family whose fate, according to Gwynne, has been taught to generations of Texas schoolchildren. Specifically, it is the story of a nine-year-old girl, Cynthia Parker, who grew up among the Comaches and gave birth to a son we know as Quanah Parker, who would one day be a famous war chief of his tribe.

Cynthia and four other captives were taken by the Indians after an attack on Parker's Fort in May, The extended Parker family had built a strong, stockaded fort in the wilderness, where about twenty or so people resided. A Comanche attack led to five Parker deaths and the taking of Cynthia, Rachel Kellogg and her fourteen-month son, Rachel's aunt Elizabeth, and Cynthia's seven-year-old brother John.

The captives would be literally dragged over the plains day and night on horses by the Comanches. Women, from teenaged years on up, would be constantly beaten and raped. In the Parker case, all of the captives were eventually split up, with Indian families taking the adults for slave labor, including, as Gwynne notes in detail, the constant need to gut killed buffalo and clean their hides.

Rachel would have her son torn from her arms and murdered. Rachel would make a daring escape later, and would write the best-known account of the ordeal of an Anglo-European woman forceably taken by an Indian tribe. Elizabeth and John would be ransomed some time later. The only one of these captives who seemed, for a long time, to have vanished for good was Cynthia. In reality, she was taken into a Comanche family and raised as one of their own.

Gwynne describes how captives, usually children, could suddenly have the brutality of their existence changed when they became one of the "loved ones", an outsider taken into the bosom of a tribe. After about ten years of this new life, a Texas peace delegation would discover that the long-lost Parker girl was still living. What shocked them, and subsequent others, was that neither the tribe nor Cynthia were interested in her repatriation to her original family.

Her family, in the meantime, wanted her back, along with her other captured relatives. Her uncle, James Parker Rachel's father would become somewhat famous for his continued trips into Indian lands, five times from to , with additional excursions from to All of these trips were extremely risky, involving traveling in hostile territory, and costly to a man who had hardly any money to buy clothing and survival equipment. James was instrumental in finding Elizabeth and raising the money, with help from his friend Sam Houston, to ransom her.

His exhaustive efforts were the inspiration for the John Wayne role of Ethan, an uncle searching for years to find his captured niece played by Natalie Wood, in John Ford's epic movie "The Searchers", according to Gwynne. It is interesting, as Gwynne notes, that James is not known to have had contact with Cynthia when she was finally returned to her family years later. That event was made possible by the "Battle of Pease River" in December of She was the wife of a war chief named Peta Nocona. She had three children, twelve year old Quannah, his ten year old brother Peanut and an infant girl, Prairie Flower.

The times were extremely brutal, with Comanches and their allied Kiowas killing civilian families in large numbers.

There had been decades of government efforts to pursue and punish the Indians, utilizing the army and the Texas Rangers whose history is told in fascinating detail by Gwynne. By , the violence was almost unbearable, with Peta Nocona among the most active killers of settlers. An expedition consisting of regular army, Rangers and Indian scouts was sent to Mule Creek after intelligence located the Indians there.

By the time the Americans arrived in the area, however, most of the natives had left, with just a few remaining families packing up their belongings to move on. The Indian village was attacked, and what ensued was what Gwynne calls "more of a butchery than a pitched battle. Once upon a time you could follow Charlie into the darkest pit of human depravity and watch from the shadow while he, often with the help of hitman Louis and cat burglar Angel, dealt swift and terrible justice to the absolute worst of the worst the world had to offer.

You could revel in the blood shed because there was something weirdly grand and sweet about it. Charlie's darkness was tempered with a thin beam of pure, uncorrupted belief in the better angels of human nature. He hated, but dear god did he ever love too. We meet character after character who we are told are doing really evil depraved things because of course its evil and depraved to sell children on the black market and use women for breeding stock but its not terrifying the way it once was. We see all these things but we don't really know or understand them.

Literally nothing happens to advance the over arcing story here Charlie may or may not be some kind of supernatural something who's supposed to battle another supernatural something and now somehow his daughter is also involved somehow but that doesn't really matter since we don't really even know what that story even is. As usual Charlie and Angel and Louis arrive twenty pages from the end to dispense justice and witticisms and bad people die horrible and there's some demon or something and on the very last page once again some frickin' something is watching from the dark blah blah blah God these books make me tired Oct 22, Sue rated it really liked it Shelves: After reading Night Music: I've also heard about the Charlie Parker series in the past but never managed to get to it.

Well NetGalley has corrected that reading deficit! And deficit it has been for Charlie Parker definitely took me to another region of reading where mystery and the paranormal intersect. I recently finished a Pendergast novel in a series that sometimes walks in the same area, but Connolly treads much deeper here. What a mi After reading Night Music: What a mixture of darkness and insight I am going to have to go back and read earlier books in this series, learn more about Parker, his world and the ethos that drives him. I like the mythical elements which remind me of old English and other European influences never far away, sometimes so deeply ingrained that they are forgotten or ignored today.

But not by Mr Connolly. In that way it reminds me of aspects of American Gods that I loved so much. I do recommend this book and likely the series I have yet to explore further for myself with the caveat regarding violence. But remember justice for those who have been harmed is involved, justice against those who seem not to care about anyone. A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review. Aug 05, Julie rated it liked it Shelves: I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

But, alas, the fourteenth book opens with a puzzling scenario in which a man who became a he A Time of Torment by John Connolly is a Atria publication. But, alas, the fourteenth book opens with a puzzling scenario in which a man who became a hero, sees his fortunes reversed after being sent to prison for a sickening crime.

Once out on probation, Jerome hires Charlie Parker, who agrees to take his case, knowing time is of the essence and the circumstances are dire. However, I will have to confess I struggled for a good while before the threads began to connect. The story moves at a slow clip, and is not one to read on autopilot.

I had to go very slow to digest the information, hoping I was following the story correctly, absorbing it the way the author intended. The story is fairly gruesome, with cringe worthy graphic violence and lurid imagery. It is more dense than usual, and falls squarely into the horror genre, with the detective aspects bringing up the rear, which is another disappointing change. Despite becoming annoyed by this change in character behavior, and the off-kilter tone of the book, I finally found a groove and grudgingly admit the story turned out better than I thought it would.

Sep 14, Mark rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: It's a foulness that is right at the heart of existence, born with the stuff of the Universe. It's in decay to which all things tend. It is, and it always will be, but in dying we leave it behind" The 14th Charlie Parker and this one does show that there are plenty more good stories to be told. Connolly writes so fluent and casual that it is difficult to stop reading because daily life calls. This "There's a kind of evil that isn't even in opposition to good, because good is an irrelevance to it.

This time I was able to pace myself so I could enjoy the book a little longer. Charlie Parker has changed and with this change comes a certain degree in cooperation with the FBI for whom he tracks down the monsters. A man gets released after a long time in jail as a convicted pedophile and he seeks out Parker to ask him to find out who he has offended so much that he got send to jail being framed for something he did not do. The man believes his heroic deed in killing a few robbers sealed his fate. Parker believes him and when the man disappears he starts looking for the man and his past.

In West-Virginia is a place that is ruled by evil and paid for by crime, where law does not apply unless it is the one laid down by the Dead King. Even in the story I encountered shocking surprises that showed the plain on which Parker and his friends do their thing. Different to other books is that most of the story is not written from Parkers viewpoint but of those coming into contact with him and how they experience that. This book is excellent and the ending left me somewhat taken aback. This book can be best enjoyed being read in sequence of the series as it does give it a better kick.

It will be a long wait for the next Parker story. Ya desde el principio, la historia te atrapa, en un primer tercio verdaderamente electrizante. Aug 01, Barbara rated it liked it. Ormsby is about to do away with a little girl he snatched when Private Detective Charlie Parker and his partners, Angel and Louis, show up to save the day. As it happens ANY bad guys on Parker's radar better watch their backs because Charlie and his pals are the best killers around. Moreover, Parker has a complicated relationship with some supernatural beings 3.

Moreover, Parker has a complicated relationship with some supernatural beings who lend a hand on occasion. Thus Charlie's a guy you'd always want in your corner at least I would. The main story in this 14th book in the series revolves around ex-convict Jerome Burnel. Burnel was once an unhappily married jewelry dealer who saved the lives of several people by killing a couple of sadistic thieves. The thieves' enraged relatives then framed Burnel for child pornography and got him sent to prison for five years, where Burnel was regularly tormented and beaten.

Burnel - now a broken man - is out on parole and convinced his enemies are still after him. Thus Burnel tells Parker the whole story and hires the detective to investigate if he disappears. The families in The Cut, who've lived there for generations, don't allow outsiders on their land. The Cut grows its own food and - to make money - steals and perpetrates other crimes. The Cut also harbors some vicious killers - and the stunts the residents get up to with kidnapped women are unspeakable!

Of course Angel and Louis are on hand to help, as are other law enforcement officials and agencies. In one of my favorite scenes killers from The Cut try to ambush Parker in his motel. The action - including some deft work by Angel and Louis - is dramatic and exciting. There are plenty of interesting characters in the story including: There are also a couple of ghosts and some of Parker's other-worldly acquaintances. I enjoyed the story, and highly recommend it readers who enjoy thrillers - especially fans of Charlie Parker.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for a copy of the book. You can follow my reviews at http: Apr 27, Brandon rated it liked it Shelves: Charlie Parker is approached by Jerome Burnel. Burnel was at one time considered a hero, foiling a botched gas station robbery. Tragically, all was forgotten when a short time later, Jerome was brought up on child pornography charges. Burnell hires Parker to clear his name and look into his prison tormentor, Harpur Griffin, also recently released from jail. The events in the twelfth book Charlie Parker is approached by Jerome Burnel.

The events in the twelfth book of the series, A Wolf in Winter, altered Parker forever. While he spent the majority of the last novel A Song of Shadows licking his wounds, he fully emerges as a changed man in A Time of Torment.

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Now, less a detective and more of a hunter, Parker, accompanied by his long time friends and associates Louis and Angel, seek to track down and destroy those who prey on the weak. I absolutely love what Connolly is doing with Parker by turning him into an absolute beast of a character. Over the course of the last seventeen years, Connolly has managed to pump out nearly one Parker novel a year — which is impressive considering their length, quality and research required into the weird adversaries that Connolly presents to his signature detective.

But there are some novels that while they are still enjoyable, fall a little short of what I consider his best work. Jun 13, Debra rated it really liked it Shelves: Received form the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Charlie Parker is approached by a recently released convict, Jerome Burnel, who wishes to tell Parker his story. A sad, twisted story of a broken and tormented man. A man framed for a crime he did not commit and suffered brutality at the hands of his tormentors.

This, in addition to Burnel's story, peaks Parker's interest. An area that is protects it's own and has its own rules and ways of living. They are brutal and carry out their own justice. They serve the Dead King. Charlie Parker is a man with a past. This is the 14th book in this series but this book does stand up very well as a stand alone novel. One could very easily pick up this book and enjoy it without having read the previous books in this series.

Having said that, the previous books in this series set the stage and give us history into Parker and his own sad past. He has a dead wife. A dead daughter and one living daughter one very interesting living daughter. As always there are paranormal elements to this story. Connolly is a unique Author, in that he can make a fan out of those who aren't fans of Paranormal books. Mainly because the paranormal elements are not the main players in the Parker series. They play an important and key part but yet they do not over power any other aspects of Connolly's books.

Connolly continues to have very good character development. I believe this is where the Author shines. He fills his books with interesting characters. The book was a little slow in the beginning but not boring. It slowly builds the tension as the reader is introduced to life in the Cut, the local sheriff, and Parker's investigation. I enjoyed this book. This was my first John Connolly book. Why it took me so long, I have no idea.

I wish though that I could have read it all in one or two sittings as I did confused with the characters, a lot. And there were a lot of characters. However, that's my fault and by no means the author. I loved this book. There were so many plot twists and bad guys. And these bad guys were ruthless. Too bad they were also stupid. There were also lots of surprises and a little creepiness involved which I will not be goin This was my first John Connolly book.

There were also lots of surprises and a little creepiness involved which I will not be going into to avoid spoilers. I will definitely be reading more of this Charlie Parker series. Thanks Atria Books and Net Galley for the free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

John Connolly, the author, has been teasing readers, and Charlie Parker, off and on in this detective series with vague hints of paranormal interferences and more overt episodes of evil gods and angelic attacks against the innocent who are victims and the willing who embrace being possessed. Parker has been resisting messages which could only be from spirits. He also has been turning away fr 'A Time of Torment', 14 in the Charlie Parker series, is in some ways, the detective's coming out party. He also has been turning away from acknowledging actual ghostly visitations, telling himself it all likely was a psychological delusion, arising out of his unending grief from the horrendous murders of his first wife Susan and their young daughter Jennifer.

However, after nearly dying two books ago, he not only is accepting he is a warrior in an invisible battle of possessed humans, he is realizing his second daughter, Samantha, is somehow a powerful paranormal channeler to the dead. Between Sam and the ghost Jennifer, who refuses to leave him, he is now firmly leading his friends, Louis, an assassin, and Angel, a thief, into taking certain cases from private clients desperate for help the police can't give.

The last character Parker has finally resolved to include in his cases, to a point, is Ross, an upper-level operative in the secretive world of the FBI and the CIA. For some time Parker has often been suspicious of Ross' motives as their paths have crossed in previous murders; however, he has decided to call Ross when he needs to pass on or receive information.

Parker relies only on guns, his wits, his helpers and, often not knowing how they are helping him, his daughters, to investigate the crimes clients bring to him. Some clients are in particularly gruesome difficulties because they have unluckily rubbed up against or interfered with either possessed people or someone who has eagerly embraced serving these dark bloodthirsty gods. One such client is the pathetic ex-con who tells Parker his name is Jerome Burnel. Like many such, he claims he is innocent. Upon meeting the man and hearing his story, Parker thinks he could be telling the truth.

Burnel's crime was possessing child pornography, for which he was sentenced to five years in prison. While there, another con took considerable delight in arranging that Burnel be raped almost every day. Burnel says he knew nothing about the kiddie porn on his computer and he believes he was set up. Two months before the police were tipped off to the photos, Burnel had stopped two killers in the middle of a robbery of a store. He thinks the vicious criminals he stopped had friends who had decided to destroy Burnel's life in revenge. Parker opens an investigation. What he learns has him believing Burnel.

The two killers have a past and a link to an isolated and very small community in a West Virginia valley called the Cut. The Cut was settled by very secretive people hundreds of years ago.

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The Cut is such a scary place, the local police avoid it. So do bikers and drug dealers. Everyone who is known to have gone to do new business in the Cut never came back. Police who try to dig around too much have been known to suddenly quit their jobs and take their family far away. No one wants to talk about the Cut Ir sounds exactly like the kind of place Parker has to visit!

I do not think this is a standalone novel. It begins very slow with a number of seemingly unrelated events, introducing different characters. For the first half of the book the reader cannot see the plot, only threads. What begins unfolding, though, is pure horror. There are a few authors whose novels are my own personal equivalent to comfort food. Stephen King is one; John Connolly is another.

Elizabeth Renker also quoted a letter Lizzie sent secretly to a friend that indicated she was afraid of her husband: Some said that she drew on an unreliable oral history. Renker or her work by name. Renker, a professor at Ohio State University. At least give a citation so that readers can confront the evidence for themselves …. Parker presents Melville as a kind of respectable Christ figure, a great artist and family man who, in Mr. Parker says that Melville did so by getting harsh reviews: Even subjecting her to so much shame in the public press was a form of mistreatment.

Then he imagines how such a belief might have formed. These are nutty arguments. They soft-pedal a stunning resolution by members of two privileged families to intervene to end a marriage in crisis. The family members were at least somewhat sophisticated; they were not acting because a newspaper review of Pierre 15 years before said that Melville was nuts. They would think he was insane. Still, the claims call for careful assessment. Melville was surely a manic depressive. He seems to have suffered a breakdown after Pierre and had suicidal ideas.

His sense of entitlement, and need for cash, apparently kept him from leaving the prison of his family. He was not capable of what Mr. And yes, Melville probably beat his wife.

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