The Madstone (e-book) (used book) | Elizabeth Crook | bookbook.eu

Description

With echoes of Lonesome Dove and News of the World, the riveting story of a pregnant young mother, her child, and the noble settler who helps them flee across Texas from desperados bent on revenge, even as an unlikely love blossoms

The year is 1868, in the hill country of Texas. As Benjamin Shreve, a nineteen-year-old woodworker, tends to business in his shop, he witnesses a stagecoach depart, stranding an irate passenger. When the man persuades Benjamin to help him, the young settler is drawn into a drama whose scope he could never have imagined.

The passenger proves to be in possession of a mysterious fortune left aboard the vanished coach, which Benjamin aids the man in tracking down. But when they catch up to the coach, there is a surprise in store: its other passengers include Nell, a pregnant young woman, and her four-year-old son, Tot, who are on the run. When Benjamin learns that mother and son are fleeing a brutal husband and his gang of roughnecks, he instinctively offers them passage all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, where they can board a ferry to safety.

This act of chivalry will turn out to be more dangerous than he could have known, as buried secrets--including a cursed necklace--rise to the surface during their journey. Even as Benjamin, now a fierce guardian, falls in love with Nell and imagines a life as Tot's father, violent pursuers are hot on their trail, with escape or grievous harm their only options. Calling to mind Larry McMurtry's American epics, The Madstone is a thrilling, beautiful, and achingly rendered story of three characters who forge an unexpected love that will seal them into each other's hearts forever.