Out West Books suggests tales of family struggle, mystery and a road novel

Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from Out West Books in Grand Junction recommends a long-awaited follow up from the author of “The Help,” a National Park thriller and an Indigenous adventure.

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From the publisher: Oxford, Mississippi, 1933. Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable “big girls” at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed. 

Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister’s seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies. Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates — and Meg’s — converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan for them to take control of their lives. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women’s freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences. 

From Marya Johnston, owner: If there is a book that everyone is reading, I shy away, because those books rarely live up to the hype. One day a customer told me that of the 638 pages of “The Calamity Club,” there wasn’t one she didn’t find interesting. This seemed like an unusual recommendation, so I gave the book a try. 

Besides being so atmospheric you can just feel the Mississippi heat and humidity, this is mostly a story of women helping women through tough times, no matter the cost, and I am here for it.  I’ve thought about this book for days (weeks?) afterward and can remember some scenes so vividly that I believe it will stand the test of time.  It’s been more than 17 years since Kathryn Stockett wrote “The Help,” but “The Calamity Club” was worth the wait.

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From the publisher: Archaeologist Chuck Bender witnesses a shocking death while conducting a survey at Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, yet local cops quickly declare the bizarre incident an accident. But when Chuck discovers a series of mysterious artifacts that threaten the lives of film students in the park — including his daughter Rosie — he will stop at nothing to uncover the truth.

Is a killer quietly stalking Great Sand Dunes? Are the students the next target? And why does no one seem to care about the young man whose brutal killing started it all? Together, Chuck and Rosie must unravel a devious web of deception and deceit — before one death turns into a massacre.

From Marya Johnston, owner: This is the 10th book in Scott Graham’s National Park Mystery series, but you don’t necessarily need to have read the earlier books to appreciate this one. It will certainly make you want to read all the others, though.

Scott’s appreciation for and knowledge of the National Park system, as well as his complex characters, really make these books. For Colorado, he has written about Rocky Mountain National Park, Mesa Verde, and now the Great Sand Dunes. His main character, archaeologist Chuck Bender, is trying to figure out why he is the only person to believe that an incident where a young man was shot and then killed by alligators was not an accident.

And why did this happen just as Chuck discovered some interesting artifacts in the park? Scott incorporates interesting parts of the San Luis Valley, including that alligator sanctuary and those empty sagebrush subdivisions we’ve all seen. What’s not to love here?  Archaeology! National Parks! Local interest and history! And of course, murder!  Particularly fun for me was the Park Service chief resources officer that Scott based on an actual “character” with whom I worked when we were seasonal park rangers back in the day.  Scott Graham lives in Durango.

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From the publisher: Two Lakota boys, ages 11 and 6, huddle in a boxcar hurtling through the prairie night as they run from a government agent sent to take the younger boy to an Indian boarding school. But what begins as a pursuit soon becomes a complex human drama of intersecting lives as the boys make their way across the vast Dakota plains to the pipestone quarries of western Minnesota to replace their great-grandfather’s channunpa, or sacred pipe, that was broken by the government agent.

Alive with a rich tapestry of characters the boys meet along their journey, “Lone Dog Road” is at once an exploration of the hidden corners of the human heart and a moving study of the way the land shapes the people who live, love, dream, and die upon it. Sprawling, complex, and intimate, it is destined to take its place in the grand tradition of great American road novels.

From Didi Herald, bookseller: This is at the top of my favorites because, as I thought about why I loved it, I realized that while it is sometimes an edge-of-the-seat page turner, it is also a comforting read with diverse strangers caring enough to help Levi keep Reuben safe. Their mother sent them on the run knowing Reuben would never survive the government Indian school. Just about everyone they encounter is eventually willing to help them stay safe and accomplish a mission they embark on to restore something of immense meaning to their grandfather. Over many miles they find their way and people who help them while taking on danger for themselves. It is a compelling story, lyrical, with honest prose and a plot that immerses the reader in this dusty rural world of the 1950s.

Type of Story: Review

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