Title: The Lincoln County Wars
Author: Sarah Black
Publisher: http://www.loose-id.com/default.aspx
Genre: Contemporary M/M
Length: Novella
Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5
A Guest Review by Val Kovalin
THE BLURB:
The men of Lincoln County grow up strong and proud, their characters forged by tradition and the harsh and beautiful land of the High Lonesome. But gay isn’t part of the Cowboy Way.
Graham and Tommy have been together their whole lives, best friends, and lovers. But they live in Lincoln County, and the strain of keeping their relationship hidden was already beginning to tell on them when Tommy was called up to go to war. A year in Iraq, and Graham fears that time and distance have severed their connection. He’s not giving up, though; it’s not in his nature.
Tommy came back from the war changed, they all did. But Tommy Lathrop is the Sheriff of Lincoln County and that hasn’t changed. When vandalism targeting gays turns ugly, and a returning vet seems to be implicated, Tommy steps in. He’s determined to protect his lover, his platoon mates and all of Lincoln County — the life and people he loves. No matter the cost to himself.
Together, Graham and Tommy, their friends and family, will save Lincoln County, and in the process restore themselves.
THE REVIEW:
The Lincoln County Wars takes place in the remote high-desert town of Capitan, New Mexico. There, cattle ranching is the main occupation and the citizens are conservative in outlook. Our third-person viewpoint character Graham is the 29 year-old chef at a local restaurant, the Mad Moose.
The story opens when Graham prepares a welcome-home banquet for the local National Guard platoon. The soliders, including his brother and his best friend Tommy, have just returned from harrowing service in the Iraq War.
Now Graham struggles with his emotions before Tommy arrives for dinner. For a year, he hasn’t known if Tommy or his brother would survive the war. For the past ten years, he and Tommy have been secret lovers. They kept their affair deep in the closet in order to remain in good standing in their hometown. All the secrecy has deprived their relationship of the chance to grow.
On top of that, Tommy never wrote to Graham while in Iraq except for one short declaration of love written during what looked to be a certain-death combat situation. The platoon has been back in Capitan long enough by now for Tommy to get elected Sheriff of Lincoln County. But not once has Tommy come by to say hello to Graham. It’s no wonder that Graham now feels a mixture of love and hatred towards Tommy.
As the plot unfolds, several minor characters stir up trouble – with the most obvious one being young Baxter who is out and proud and determined to forcibly convert the ignorant citizens of Capitan to gay tolerance despite the warnings from wiser characters to tone down his in-your-face approach.
When homophobic harassment and vandalism starts targeting the Mad Moose restaurant, it puts Graham in a bad position. Is someone out to get Baxter, or have people figured out about Graham and Tommy?
Of course Tommy is in an even worse position as the secretly gay sheriff. Plus he’s worried about an unstable veteran in his platoon who could be the source of the trouble.
Meanwhile, the election for mayor is heating up between the somewhat cartoonish incumbent Ziegler and Baxter’s mom Merry who might carry the vote. I have to admit that I found her a little too perfect. She’s a gorgeous, beloved, disabled combat veteran who ended up in a wheelchair after flying a helicopter medevac mission in the first Gulf War.
It’s always hard for me to put together a number-grade on fiction, but I’ll try. The time spent on the somewhat less interesting characters of Baxter, Merry, and Ziegler bring the story to a 4 for me. But several elements merit a 5. There is the gorgeously detailed high-desert setting. Add to that the level of authenticity and great empathy the author brings to writing about Iraq War veterans. Very unusual!
Then you’ve got the strong, appealing, and complex characters of Graham and especially Tommy. Their chemistry is smoking hot, and their sex scenes are even better. I’m not normally a fan of angst for its own sake, but the emotional terrain that they cover is fraught with real anguish and passion and their scenes are unputdownable. So I’d have to average all this together into 4.75 out of 5. Highly recommended!
“unputdownable.’ you say…
Val you are so unhealthy for my shelves – I am a fan of Sarah Black’s work and this one is somewhere on the hard drive ….you know I am going to go find it now..
I am liking the main protags alot and if the smut level is as good as I know Ms. Black is capable of – I know I am going to love this…
Thanks Val..
Loving your sum of this book and your thoughts as well…
E.H>
Hi, E.H., you’re very welcome! How funny that I’m contributing to the virtual load on your virtual shelves, ha, ha! Yes, I read The Lincoln County Wars and then went out and bought her complete works, including the m/f. I hope she gives us a new story soon!
I’m not sure if its too angsty for me. To be honest I don’t care for plots with two characters so deep in the closet they end up in Narnia. I find it frustrating although IRL I understand the why’s of such things. It will go on my consideration list simply because of the high rating.
I don’t think the Narnia thing will piss you off too much, Tam, especially since at least one of the characters starts longing for a way out of the closet, so it’s not like they’re content to stay there.
I haven’t read a Sarah Black book yet that I didn’t absolutely love, though, so I’m biased. 😉
“I haven’t read a Sarah Black book yet that I didn’t absolutely love, though, so I’m biased.”
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Me, too, Jules! I’ve been getting her complete works as I was telling E.H. above, even the m/f. Not just any writer can get me to read m/f, ha, ha!
Thank you, Tam, this is good reader feedback on something I just failed to clarify in the review. I was trying to say that I don’t like angst for its own sake and that’s why I appreciated that this book didn’t do that. I just didn’t get that across, but in reality, this isn’t an “angst” type of book. There is a lot of real emotion in the book, but not that pointless kind of angst that we run into sometimes in m/m.
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Oh, yes, and I definitely am with you on the closet thing (“so far in the closet that they end up in Narnia” — that is too funny, ha, ha!). I get very impatient with characters that put themselves through that, especially nowadays. I mean, what could be more important to stand up for than your true love?
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But, as impatient as I usually get with closeted characters, I accepted it here on the strength of the writing. I think you’d like the book if you tried it, and like the others have mentioned, Border Roads is even better!
Sarah Black wrote about war veterans in “Border Roads” and that is a powerful story. I have good feelings about this one too.
I don’t mind angst as long as we get a good ending?
TheLastAerie, yes, I found Border Roads amazing! In fact I almost reviewed it instead, but it’s more complex, and I couldn’t organize my thoughts in time so I went with the also-very-good Lincoln County Wars.
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As for the good ending, this is the romance genre! Need you even ask? 🙂
Eve, it has a very good ending, don’t worry, I didn’t actually find the angst level overwhelming.
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I really love the feeling of a small town with a military reserve unit that is part of the fabric of the town, not something alien and hostile. It’s one of my favourite Sarah Black stories (together with Border Roads). And it mentions Josh Lanyon’s books *g*.
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Plus it made me marvel at Americans yet again: I can’t imagine any other country naming a town “Truth or Consequences”…
Liade, yes, I remember that Josh Lanyon reference! The town was trying to get with the 21st century and show some gay tolerance, and they fixed up a display of his mystery novels at the town library!
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And Truth or Consequences, NM … there is a funny story behind that name if I’m remembering right. It used to be named Hot Springs, and then there was this radio show got developed in the 1950s called Truth or Consequences. It was looking for a town to broadcast its debut show, and Hot Springs changed its name to Truth or Consequences, which got the show to debut in that location.
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We have some terrifically funny small town American names, no question! In California, I think there are two places named Secret Town and Toad Town. In Pennsylvania alone, we’ve got towns named Desire, Intercourse, Climax, and Blue Balls!
Val
I laughed so hard at those names. I cannot imagine living in a town called Blue Balls, Climax, or Intercourse. Desire OK. Oh boy I don’t need a geography lesson, I just need to use you as my reference wiki.:)
Ha, ha, I LOVE strange town names! I mean, I want to go to Toad Town now. And I definitely have a memory for weird little bits of trivia. Glad I could entertain! 🙂
Thanks for the heads up, Julia! a Josh Lanyon reference… that’s should happen more often!
I just read a Brokeback Mountain reference in a m/m romance book today – I wonder why it doesn’t happen more often! *g*
TheLastAerie, those references such as to Josh Lanyon or Brokeback Mountain are fascinating to me because it shows how our m/m genre is evolving and growing in that it’s developing the complexity and past history to have things to refer to, if that makes any sense. I’ll admit I have a fascination with trend-charting and product life-cycle, and as a so-called “new trend”, the m/m world is near and dear to my heart. 🙂
Re. Brokeback Mountain: it’s actually mentioned in The Lincoln County Wars, too. Plus in Notturno and The White Knight (I did a search of my hard drive *g*). But it’s the first time I saw Josh mentioned in another M/M book.
Liade, you’re right! As soon as your comment prodded my memory, I realized that the Brokeback Mountain reference was in there. And in Notturno which I’ve just read.
Great review as always, Val. I’ve had this one in my TBR for months. I’m going to have to move it up now after reading your thoughts. 🙂
Hi, Lily! Thank you. I think you’ll really enjoy it. I’d love to see your review.
I would like to add to Vals list –
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Toad Suck, Arkansas
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Knockemstiff, Ohio
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& my fave – Humptulip, Washington
Those are great — especially Toad Suck! (I love amphibians.)