THE MADSTONE by Elizabeth Crook

This review originally appeared in the November 2023 edition of the Historical Novels Review.

Nineteen-year-old Benjamin is living a quiet life as a tradesman in a small Texas town during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era when he witnesses an unruly coach passenger’s brush with the law. Benjamin reluctantly accepts an offer to drive the passenger in his wagon to try to catch up with the coach and is thrown into a cascading chain of events. The journey connects Benjamin with Nell, who is pregnant and traveling with her son, Tot. Both are on the run from Nell’s despicable husband and his outlaw brothers.

The writer uses an unusual narrative structure, in that Benjamin’s account of the ensuing chase is recorded in a letter he writes to young Tot, to be opened years later. The letter’s contents unfold layers of memorable characters, and sudden and explosive action scenes. Perhaps most impressive are the depth of Benjamin’s emotions as he assesses the wild happenings and his feelings for Nell and Tot. The letter format doesn’t become tedious but instead heightens the dramatic tension of a short but epic quest that becomes monumental in Benjamin’s life.

This textured Western features exceptional prose in the form of its first-person, plain-spoken account, colored with just the right amount of period flourishes and colloquialisms, and teeming with Benjamin’s yearnings to both protect and be worthy of Nell and Tot. Dramatic, sometimes surprising, events come furiously as the chase spirals towards a “willy nilly” climax and the resolution of conflict burning inside of Benjamin regarding Nell and Tot. The Madstone is the native Texan author’s sixth novel and takes a place alongside Boston Teran’s Crippled Jack as a recently published fresh take on the Western novel which should be much admired.