Just finished a brand new novel, The James Boys, by Richard Liebmann-Smith. I was laughing out loud while reading it on the DART train back to Plano. The usual tattooed crazies avoided making eye-contact with me, since I was the rowdy, psycho passenger. The idea is that Frank and Jesse James are the long-lost brothers of Henry James and William James--with some Pinkerton detectives mixed in.
The book goes along delightfully mixing history, invention, good characterizations, and pseudo scholarship until the last fifty pages. Then my suspended disbelief was sorely tested. All in all, it was a satisfying outing. Something George MacDonald Fraser, Ron Hansen, and Elizabeth Peters might cook up together in an afternoon or two at the nearest Starbucks.
© 2008 Nancy L. Ruder
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