THE SCORPION TRAIL wins Best Books of Indiana competition

The Scorpion Trail, published by Berkley Books (Penguin, New York), has won the Best Books of Indiana literary competition.  The honor was announced by the Indiana State Library on September 06, 2011.

The Best Books of Indiana contest was created to honor Indiana's long and illustrious literary heritage and recognize Hoosier authors. The Indiana Center for the Books administers the Best Books of Indiana contest annually and accepts entries from Hoosier authors or books that have an Indiana theme or setting.

"It is a privilege to recognize this terrific group of Hoosier authors," said Roberta Brooker, Indiana State Librarian, of the winning contestants. "One copy of each Best Book will permanently join the works of great Hoosier authors like Gene Stratton Porter, James Whitcomb Riley and Kurt Vonnegut within the State Library’s Indiana Authors Room."

Sweazy was a finalist in the same category last year for The Rattlesnake Season, Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger #1 (Berkley Books, New York).

The Scorpion Trail is the second book in the award-winning Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series. The novel previously won the 2011 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction.

From the back cover: Starting your life over in a big city like Austin, Texas is no easy task, especially for a man raised on the land like Texas Ranger Josiah Wolfe. Now, after uprooting his son to the state’s capital, Josiah must leave Austin to meet up with the rest of the Texas Ranger Frontier Battalion. But before he can get to work, Josiah has to make a quick stop to check on his old friend Juan Carlos. When Josiah finds the livery where Juan Carlos was hiding aflame, he fears he may never repay the debt made the day the Mexican saved his life. To find out if his friend is dead or alive, Josiah searches for the one person who might know Juan Carlos’ whereabouts. But she too has gone missing, and another deadly fire is reported in Waco, Josiah’s quick detour turns into a search that brings up old enemies and new dangers. He’ll have to ride hard and draw fast to find his Battalion…and to return back home..

There will be (at least) six books in the Josiah Wolfe, Texas series with the most current novel, The Cougar’s Prey (#4), published on October 04, 2011. The Badger’s Revenge (#3) was published in April, 2011.

new review -- THE BADGER'S REVENGE

The Badger's Revenge (Berkley) ISBN: 978-0-425-24048-9 $6.99

 

The third book in Sweazy's Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series, The Badger's Revenge, is aptly titled, as the book serves up that cold dish left, right, and center. It also whips up a mess of guns, heat, trail dust, Texas Rangers, Comanche Indians, and people stuck in hard-luck lives, doing their best with the cards they've been dealt. This time out, Josiah Wolfe has a price on his head. He is dogged by two Comanche scouts, a murderous Irishman nicknamed The Badger, and the whiff of something-or someone-unseen and dangerous.

It's a pleasure for me to sink back into the dusty, dangerous, and complex world of everyman Josiah Wolfe. His rich inner monologues, his self-doubts, and his moments of emotional vulnerability counter the convictions that form who he is and what he stands for. But in The Badger's Revenge, that rigid moral core threatens to fill him completely.

As with all of Sweazy's characters, Wolfe is refreshingly human. Even the bad guys aren't wholly bad, they're driven by understandable, if unacceptable, impulses. Wolfe is still plagued by a bloody war and the brutal deaths of his wife and daughters. His young son is a constant reminder of what should have been, and his trying friendship with Scrap Elliott hints at something unknown, but looming.

The Badger's Revenge is a richly layered story that offers twists and turns that dare the reader to speculate who is guilty and why. There is blood, killing, deceit, anger, mistrust, and betrayal and, in the midst of it, Josiah Wolfe does his best to keep it all at arm's length as he tries to make sense of the mayhem, even as bullets whistle by his ears. My only complaint is that since I have grown so fond of these characters and Sweazy's artful unfolding of their predicaments, I have to wait for the fourth book before I find out what happens next.

-Matthew P. Mayo -- Roundup magazine 08/2011

THE BADGER'S REVENGE hardcover large print

 

The Badger's Revenge hardcover large print from Thorndike Press.  Available 10/11.

The Tuesday Update

Here's the cover for The Cougar's Prey, #4 in the Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series, set for release October 4th, 2011.

Berkley continues to provide outstanding covers for this series.  I couldn't be happier.

In other news, I turned in the copy-edit this week for The Devil's Bones, (release date: 2/2012), and a short story, "Lost Mountain Pass" for the upcoming WF (Western Fictioneers) anthology, The Traditional West, that will be released in July (2011).

And the Winners Are:

I pulled two names out of the hat this time, for a free, signed copy of The Badger's Revenge.  The winners are: David Cranmer and Jo Ann Hakola.

Thanks for playing along, and helping me celebrate the release day of the latest Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger novel.

Win a FREE signed copy of THE BADGER'S REVENGE

The Badger's Revenge releases next Tuesday, 4/05/11, and I'll be giving away 2 signed copies of the book that day.  All you need to do is enter a comment in the comment section of this blog, with a way that I can contact you, and I'll drop the book in the mail to you.  

If you've won in the previous Josiah Wolfe contests, please don't enter, so someone else can have a chance to win.

Here's the recent 4 star review that appeared in Nuvo:

THE BADGER'S REVENGE: A JOSIAH WOLFE TEXAS RANGER NOVEL BY LARRY D. SWEAZY

****

NY: Berkley Books, 2011, S6.99. Sweazy spins a

good yarn. Within 300 pages he slides in a lot of 1874 descriptive landscape with the resul­tant sounds, smells, feels and tastes of natural and manmade events as Ranger Wolfe pursues vigilantes in the name of making Texas a law abiding state. As in the first two books in the series, Wolfe gets into and out of near death situations while confronting a changing roster of personal enemies. With this book, the score seems to get settled with most of them, but his life remains unsettled as he tries to deter­mine how to raise his two-year old son and come to grips with conflicting love interests. Sweazy paints a realistic social, cultural, politi­cal triptych, drawing us into the climate and manners of the time and place. Once again we experience city and small town life juxtaposed with farmsteads. And once again we're on the open road in southern Texas, feeling the vast open spaces. Characters come and go but their presence is fully experienced. Some we hope show up in book #4. If you're already a reader of the series, #3 won't disappoint. If you're newly interested, pick up the trio. They're page turners and very shareable. - RITA KOHN

And the winner is:

The winner of the free, signed copy of The Scorpion Trail, is Randy Johnson.   

Thanks to everyone who played along.  Keep an eye out for more contests in the next couple of weeks...

~~Larry

Win a FREE signed copy of THE SCORPION TRAIL

The release of The Badger's Revenge, the third novel in the Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series, is less than a month away (04/05/11).  If you haven't read the first book in the series, The Rattlesnake Season, or the second book, The Scorpion Trail, then you're in luck.

Starting today I will give away a FREE signed copy of The Scorpion Trail.

Here's what you need to do:  Enter a comment on this blog, and make sure I have a way to contact you. It's that simple.  

I will gather all of the names in the Comments Section, and pull one out of a cowboy hat next Friday, 3/18, and give away a signed copy of The Scorpion Trail.  I will mail the copy at no expense to the winner.


Enter as many times  as you like...

Win a FREE signed copy of THE RATTLESNAKE SEASON

The release of The Badger's Revenge, the third novel in the Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series, is less than a month away (04/05/11).  If you haven't read the first book in the series, The Rattlesnake Season, or the second book, The Scorpion Trail, then you're in luck.

Starting today I will give away copies of both books between now and the launch (04/05/11) of The Badger's Revenge.

Here's what you need to do:  Enter a comment on this blog, and make sure I have a way to contact you. It's that simple.  

I will gather all of the names in the Comments Section, and pull one out of a cowboy hat next Friday, 3/11, and give away a signed copy of The Rattlesnake Season.  I will mail the copy at no expense to the winner.

Between 3/11 and 3/18 the same contest and rules will apply, only I'll be giving away a signed copy of The Scorpion Trail.  I'll post the start of the next contest and the winner of this one next Friday (3/11). 

Enter as many times  as you like...

Launch Countdown

44 days until The Badger's Revenge hits the bookshelves.

The Badger's Revenge

The third novel in my Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series releases April 05, 2011.

Here's the copy from the back cover:

Assigned to track an Indian raiding party, Texas Ranger Josiah Wolfe expects to return home to his son in Austin in a few days. But when the Ranger and his compatriots from the Frontier Battalion are overtaken by two Comanche scouts, they find themselves captives instead of captors. Comanches aren’t known for going easy on their prisoners, so Josiah is surprised when they don’t immediately shoot him.

Turns out there’s a price on his head thanks to Liam O’Reilly, a gang leader also known as the Badger. Josiah has a checkered history with the outlaw—he apprehended the gang’s previous leader—but he doesn’t know why O’Reilly wants him dead. As the Comanches drag him to the town where the Badger is waiting, Josiah knows that time is running out. But Texas Rangers are hard men to kill, and Josiah Wolfe is no exception… 

++++