The Caning by Stephen Puleo

Drama is difficult when the results are known, but in this historic recounting of the famous caning by southern Brooks to northern Senator Sumner there is a tension that you look for in good novels.

Bloody Kansas, a country tired of the horrible institution called slavery and a south comfortable in the inconsistent application of whip, chain, and inhumanity of the institution meant that conflict was inevitable. 

Even religion could not expel or justify this blight on national history, but the results of one man - Representative Brooks - taking a cane to beat another man - Charles Sumner in the halls of congress seemed to be the keystone to the shift in the debate.

No longer was it the dance that Madison had caused around this albatross, but rather it was an open and flagrant conflict that could be embodied in the bloody and invalid Sumner. 

The time for genteel discussion and compromise was past. The caning represented so much more and the bloodshed in Kansas was beyond comprehension as the bullies of Missouri poored across the border.

Ruffians they were but much more, this was a flagrant violation of the right of a state to choose for itself and the emotions brought John Brown and his boys to righteous indignation and eye for an eye retribution.

All in all the act of caning made Lincoln possible and war inevitable. Following the tableau is fascinating and absorbing.

Shantyboat on the Bayous by Harlan Hubbard

 This is the second book in the trilogy about Harlan and Anna HubbardIn this book we find the conclusion of their 7 years living on a Shanty boat.  After reaching New Orleans they and their two dogs went through the Harvey Canal and began an odyssey of life in the bayous and coastal wetlands that make the southern shore of Louisiana so unique and intriguing.

They are floating pioneers, living off the land and waters, they lead a sustainable life and work as a couple in this partnership.  Set in 1950 this is long before we began to see the need for small houses, sustainable living, low impact choices.  This is a voyage that is not based on money, but rather fortitude.

They are not trapped by schedules, but, rather, stop and go as they desire.  Sometimes it is overnight, sometimes a month.  It is leisurely and yet it has the demands of finding food, repairing the boat and keeping themselves stocked with necessities.  

They fish, gather wild pokeweed, and find a way to observe the Cajun People, places, and lifestyles.  The two artists have an eye for life around them and share their keen observations with the reader.  

It is also a historic photo of the land that has now succumbed to the ravages of land loss, oil exploitation and intrusions of our corporate greed into these isolated regions.  Today many islands and lands they saw are no longer there.

But the hint of what will happen in the 65 years since they lived here are in the book.  The flames and sounds of oil rigs, the new road...

Death on the Greasy Grass by C M Wendeloe

This is a really fun series that deserves its own television production, like Longmire.  I enjoy the characters, the sprinkling of Crow and Lakota history and beliefs and the landscape of the Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn).

This is an iconic location and as such it has had lots of history and fiction (sometimes the history is fiction) written about it so it is fitting that the mystery would engage with the Custer legend and impose on current day Crow and Lakota relationships a mysterious diary that appears to be as responsible for current murders as it is a record of historic events.

This is not a big city procedural and it will not be confused with CSI, but it is fitting to this wide open space where the rules of life and engagement seem somehow more tied to historic old-west actions than to the rules of modern law enforcement.

Manny Tanno is FBI from Pine Ridge, imagine that! And he has a case on the Crow Reservation (a Lakota working on the land of the traditional Lakota enemies).  This is a case that crosses lots of lines and the dialogue and the personal issues seem to fit with the storyline and the land.

Empire of Sin by Gary Krist

This was an excellent history of New Orleans centering around Storyville and the Italian and African American prejudices of the time.  Spiced with the story of jazz and the bad reputation that was assigned to this truly American music this book is a page turner.

Written more like a novel than a history; the book describes a variety of crimes and leads us through the events and people associated with these event and allows the reader to make discoveries within the text, but never before it is appropriate.

Madams, musicians, and politicians all have their roles here.  The Black Hand of the Italians, Jim Crow leveraged against the blacks, and, always, the moralizing groups who want to impose their gods and their false set of standards on others appear throughout the book.

There is the tension between those who seek pleasure and those who would deny it.  Between those who are coerced and those who make choices.  It is a morality play with lots of stories to test our sense of what is right and what is wrong.

Larger than life characters emerge and carry us through the various threads and lead us to ask what if?