A Killing in New Town by Kate Horsley


A Killing in New Town
Title : A Killing in New Town
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0963190962
ISBN-10 : 9780963190963
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 275
Publication : First published December 31, 1996

Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory, nineteenth-century edge of the future. Fear, greed, and real estate turn the windmill into a hanging tree. Each train into this booming railroad town unloads a cargo of carpetbaggers, entrepreneurs, seekers, Civil War veterans, and strong, lonely women--like Eliza Pelham. Good mother, drunk and unfaithful wife, Eliza stands at this juncture of raw change and random justice, caught in a reality of callousness and redemption. As Eliza searches for her stolen children, she discovers three allies: an Irish saloon girl, an Apache man who reads Melville, and La Llorona, the weeping mother, fierce in a black dress, thousands of years old.

A Killing in New Town Reviews

  • Jane

    This is one of those books I wish I had a bookgroup to discuss with. A book I want to start new shelves for. Kate Horsley could write a dead horse back to life. There is so much here. Just analyzing the title could take a half hour. So many different kinds of killings? Which one is she talking about? The 3 way culture clash- that could last an hour. THe whole thing about looking or not looking. As good as the Pagan nun.

  • Emily

    I found myself incredibly frustrated by the uselessness of the main character as she flops ineffectually through the narrative. Granted, the time in which the story is set was unkind and unfair to women, and a real woman would have likely been treated as dismissively as Eliza is in the story. But this is fiction, and I am sorely disappointed in the lack of strong female badassery. This could have been such a good story otherwise.

  • Lindi

    Great novel about living intentionally -- choosing to look, choosing to act. I loved Eliza, her discontent and her openness. And poor doomed Bridie. And Ruthie who learns to be strong. Thank you, Jane!