World, Chase Me Down

The publishing/marketing person who wrote “Catch Me If You Can meets True Grit” has got it right.

It is an action-packed western (sort of set later than a traditional western) combined with an engaging character portrait.

Pat Crowe, the protagonist/ anti hero was a real person who kidnapped and held a minor for ransome. I wasn't familiar with his story so I can't say how much of this was true. It doesn't matter much to me; it's such a good story no matter what really happened and what was made up.

Crowe gives his own first-person narration in a language that seems too poetic for who he is but it's so well done that I overlooked that. It's sort of like watching Deadwood. Makes no sense that people are talking the way they are but it sounds cool, so viewers roll with it.

I'm not sure why Hilleman tells the story out of order. Maybe it adds some suspense that telling it from A-Z would not. It's nothing that bothers me; great novels are often done this way.

One of my favorite reads of 2022.