The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook

THE MADSTONE by Elizabeth Crook is very aptly described by the publisher as “a work that echoes Lonesome Dove and News of the World.” Taking place a few years after the Civil War, it is a Western adventure featuring Ben Shreve, a young carpenter with a good heart. He gets hired to help a traveling stranger, Dickie, reconnect with the stagecoach in Texas Hill Country near Comfort, Texas, on the way to a boat for New Orleans. Along they way, these two run into robbers, murderers, and a young pregnant woman, Nell Banes, with her four-year-old son, Tot. Crook recounts the story through Ben’s eyes and his homespun reflections: “it's the oddest thing in the world, Tot, the friends you make in a lifetime.” Readers will be enthralled by the adventures – full of twists and turns including a rabid coyote and a poisonous snake, plus a touch of romance. THE MADSTONE received a starred review from Kirkus (“an entertaining, well-paced yarn”). Be sure to add it to your reading list.

And enjoy Ben’s quoting and retelling of stories about Benjamin Franklin “[who] said a person who thinks hisself in possession of all truths, and believes those who differ are far in the wrong, compares to a man walking in foggy weather. Those at some distance ahead on the road appear to him wrapped in the fog, and those behind him, wrapped in the fog as well, and those in the fields either side, all wrapped in the fog. Yet nearby and about him, things appear clear, despite he is just as much in the fog as any of them.” Enjoy!