Audiobook7 hours
The Big Drift
Written by Patrick Dearen
Narrated by Tom Stechschulte
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Will Brite is a Slash Five cowboy working in the Middle Concho region of Texas in the winter of 1884 when a blizzard descends upon him-the likes of which he has never seen. Trapped under his horse and entangled in a barbed wire fence, Will finds an unexpected (and unwelcome) savior in the form of Zeke Boles, a former slave on the run from a bloody, guilt-filled past. In Zeke's dark features Will sees a reflection of the haunting memories he has been trying to escape for so long, but he reluctantly offers him shelter for the night at the Slash Five camp. Little does he know that their lives will be inexorably linked in the spring of '85 through what will be one of the most brutal roundups of the nineteenth century. Follow Will, Zeke, and the rest of the Slash Fives as they ride through West Texas in search of stray cattle in an unforgettable tale of love, redemption, and true grit.
Related to The Big Drift
Related audiobooks
Slaughter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Panhandle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Snow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hawke's War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Broken Piano for President Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Hold Our Breath: A Journey to Texas Between Storms Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJude the Obscure (Version 2) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Virgin Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Apache Storm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHell or High Water Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoal Black Horse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hope to Die Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bone Hollow: A Hudson Heartland Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSalt River Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Free Men: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rocky Fortune - Volume 1: Oyster Shucker & Steven in a Rest Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsApache Shadow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ralph Compton Never Bet Against the Bullet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCity of Dark Corners Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlaying Days: A Novel Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5God's Thunderbolt: The Vigilantes of Montana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe DeVine Devils Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Branson Hawk: United States Marshal: Wichita Connection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBROTHERLY LOVE Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paperback Jack Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Concrete Smile Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe O'Briens Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Getting Off on Frank Sinatra Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Western Fiction For You
All the Pretty Horses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5News of the World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Rabbit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Crossing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Son Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5True Grit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where the Lost Wander: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rider of Lost Creek Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Trent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Louis L'Amour Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Streets Of Laredo Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5T. H. Elkman: A Western Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves: The Bass Reeves Trilogy, Book One Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sing Her Down: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Strange Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Showdown Trail: A Novel of Wagon Train Days Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chenneville: A Novel of Murder, Loss, and Vengeance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5River of Teeth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trail Driver: A Western Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cities of the Plain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cold Millions: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strongheart: The Lost Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Country Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Where Coyotes Howl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death Comes for the Archbishop Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Raylan: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Deadwood: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dance Hall of the Dead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Big Drift
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5PATRICK DEARENThe Big Drift: A NovelFICTIONTCU Press, trade paper, 978-0-87565-570-3192 pp., $22.952014reviewed 3.8.2015 by Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor The Big Drift by Patrick Dearen begins in the Middle Concho of west Texas during a blizzard in December 1884. Zeke Boles, a black cowhand and former slave, is running from a hangman’s noose when he stumbles across Will Brite, a white cowhand pinned under his horse and caught up in the barbed wire of a drift line. This unlikely pair, brought together by chance, learns that they have more in common than that which separates them and they must depend upon each other for their very lives as each seeks redemption for his part in the memories they are each trying to outrun. Dearen has a talent for describing this rugged country and the behavior of herd animals. The stampede caused by the blizzard is vividly evoked: “Thundering and bawling, a great shadow that seemed composed of many smaller shadows rushed pell-mell…” Later in the spring when the cowboys of several ranches converge in the upper Chihuahuan desert to round up thousands of longhorns that have burst through the drift line, they discover the cattle “had planted their forefeet, and every bovine in their wake had plowed into the animal in front of it. Successive waves of beeves were falling in a swelling heap, forming a stair-stepping course of hide, hair, and horns for the beeves that charged after them.” Dearen’s plot is smartly imagined and masterfully paced, and the action sequences are truly suspenseful. The author notes, “In writing about racial aspects of the 1880s, I have tried to balance historical accuracy with modern sensitivities.” He has largely succeeded in this and in an empathetic treatment of the lone female character in The Big Drift, a rarity in the Western genre. Dearen has created an eclectic cast of characters and even the minor parts are fully realized: black and white, city and frontier, educated and illiterate, rich and poor. There is a sprinkling of humor, usually when Arch, a buffalo skinner who frequently sounds like a professor, makes a pronouncement, “When a man’s romances have all been on a commercial basis…finding the ‘sweet Mary’ of his dreams will reduce him to a trembling puppy.” How much penance is enough? Are there some sins for which you can never make amends? How exactly does the balance sheet tally? “Will lay pondering Zeke’s words for troubling seconds. ‘So we just playin’ our hands, that what we’re doin’? ‘Cause we went this a-way instead of that, can’t do nothing’ except ride right straight on to hell?’” I finished this tale with tears in my eyes. The Big Drift is not just another typical tale of the blood-soaked West. This novel is a satisfying and surprisingly smooth blend of traditional Old West, insightful modern psychology, thrilling action, a tortuous search for redemption, and the power of confession, forgiveness and what you had thought was the impossibility of salvation. Patrick Dearen is the author of more than twenty books, twelve of them novels. He is at the top of his powers in The Big Drift.