Synopsis/blurb…….
The year is 1864.
Sister Thomas Josephine, an innocent Visitantine nun from St Louis, Missouri,
is making her way west to the promise of a new life in Sacramento, California.
When an attack on her wagon train leaves her stranded in Wyoming, Thomas Josephine
finds her faith tested and her heart torn between Lt. Theodore F. Carthy, a man
too beautiful to be true, and the mysterious grifter Abraham C. Muir.
Falsely accused of
murder she goes on the run, all the while being hunted by a man who has become
dangerously obsessed with her. Her journey will take her from the most
forbidding mountain peaks to the hottest, most hostile desert on earth, from
Nevada to Mexico to Texas, and her faith will be tested in ways she could never
imagine.
Nunslinger is the
true tale of Sister Thomas Josephine, a woman whose desire to do good in the
world leads her on an incredible adventure that pits her faith, her feelings
and her very life against inhospitable elements, the armies of the North and
South, and the most dangerous creature of all: man.
My very last post on this book!
We have a weird and wonderful Western introducing one of the
most interesting characters I have read about this year – Sister Thomas Josephine,
a young nun from Missouri in the 1860’s.
Nunslinger depending
on your reading habits could be approached as either a 600 plus page epic, or
in easier bite-sized chunks, as 12 separate 50-60 page episodes. I had a vested
interest in choosing the second route as it offered me the opportunity to flesh
out the reading statistics by 12 books, as opposed to one! Whatever the
approach I’m sure it will provide great entertainment.
Setting, place, character, action, thrills, suspense and
romance all meshed together.
Nuns, convents, army, civil war, kidnapping, horses, wagons,
wilderness, mountains, snow, pursuit, Mexicans, Union soldiers, a handsome but
dangerous and syphilitically-infected admirer, Indians, Federales, preachers,
outlaws, bounty hunters, newspapermen, gallows, rivers, oceans, steamers,
lifeboats, fires, explosions, family, children, orphanages, double-crossing,
Marshalls, wanted posters, massacres, railways, saloons, gut-rot whiskey,
jilted fiancée rosary beads, mistrust, duplicity, uneasy alliances,
friendships, devotion to faith, guns, death, obsession, revenge, retribution,
justice, a loss of innocence, love…..
In the interests of completion, I’ll list the individual
episodes and links to my thoughts as I meandered through the series.
Stark Holborn is an enigma, shrouded in mystery and double wrapped
in a cloak with a fake-ID to boot. Male or female – don’t know. Where he or she
hails from – no idea. I’ll be interested in seeing what comes next from the
author though.
4 from 5 overall
Originally sourced through Net Galley, but I let my link
expire, so ending up borrowing and renewing about 8 times from my local
library.
Col, twelve episodic reads and reviews instead of one humungous book was a smart move. I'd have done the same thing. I didn't know they were published as one book.
ReplyDeletePrashant - cheers, Definitely the right way to go for me......and others?
DeleteI'm so glad you enjoyed these stories overall, Col. What an interesting series, too, with such a great protagonist. Reading your writeup on this has gotten me interested in it myself. I may have to give this one a go.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts on the series if at some point you do give it a try, I think it was more exhausting blogging about it than reading it!
DeleteI will definitely get to this some time soon - but I don't think I will be doing 12 blogposts! Kudos to you for consistency.
ReplyDeleteHarder to blog about by the half way point than to actually read, but I'm nothing if not a completist!
DeleteI am missing the nunslinger posts and the cool illustrations.
ReplyDeleteHaha.....I am happy to have the Nun out of my hair, but I'm kind of hoping she might re-surface in the future!
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