With Blood in Their Eyes

by Thomas Cobb

Overview

Winner, Spur Award for Best Western Long Novel (Western Writers of America) and Southwest Book Award (Border Regional Library Association)

On February 10, 1918, John Power woke to the sound of bells and horses’ hooves. He was sharing a cabin near the family mine with his brother Tom and their father Jeff; hired man Tom Sisson was also nearby. Then gunfire erupted, and so began the day when the Power brothers engaged the Graham County Sheriff’s Department in the bloodiest shootout in Arizona history.

Now Thomas Cobb, author of Crazy Heart and Shavetail, has taken up the story in this powerful and meticulously researched nonfiction novel. What seems at first a simple tale of crime and pursuit takes on much greater meaning and complexity as the story traces the past lives of the main characters and interconnects them—all leading back to the deadly confrontation that begins the book. Cobb cunningly weaves the story of the Power brothers’ escape with flashbacks of the boys’ father’s life and his struggle to make a living ranching, logging, and mining in the West around the turn of the century. Deftly drawn characters and cleverly concealed motivations work seamlessly to blend a compelling family history with a desperate story of the brothers as they attempt to escape.

Grappling with themes of loyalty, masculinity, technology, and honor, this sweeping saga reveals the passion and brutality of frontier life in Arizona a hundred years ago. Richly authentic and beautifully written, With Blood in Their Eyes breathes dramatic new life into this nearly forgotten episode of the American West.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816599486
Publisher:	University of Arizona Press
Publication date:	09/13/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Thomas Cobb is the author of Crazy Heart and Shavetail as well as an award-winning short-story collection entitled Acts of Contrition. He grew up in Southern Arizona and now lives in Rhode Island with his wife.

Table of Contents

Contents Map Prologue: February 10, 1918 Chapter One: 1918 Chapter Two: 1889 Chapter Three: 1918 Chapter Four: 1896 Chapter Five: 1918 Chapter Six: 1894 Chapter Seven: 1918 Chapter Eight: 1901 Chapter Nine: 1915 Chapter Ten: 1918 Chapter Eleven: 1916 Chapter Twelve: 1918 Chapter Thirteen: 1916 Chapter Fourteen: 1916 Chapter Fifteen: 1918 Chapter Sixteen: 1918 Chapter Seventeen: 1918 Chapter Eighteen: 1918 Chapter Nineteen: 1918 Afterword Acknowledgments About the Author

Editorial Reviews

In this gripping 20th-century western, Cobb (Crazy Heart) presents a fictionalized account of the bloodiest shootout in Arizona history, and the desperate manhunt that ensued in the rugged mountains and arid deserts of Arizona in 1918. Cobb masterfully creates a tale of crooked lawmen, whiskey smugglers, cowboys, and gold miners, while also illuminating the very real tension between Mormons and gentiles in a lawless region where “a man who had caught the desire for blood and had blended it with righteousness was a man to fear.” When lawmen come after brothers Tom and John Power for draft evasion, the resulting gun battle leaves three lawmen dead, the Power boys’ father dying, and the brothers on the run to Mexico. Cobb tells the story in two alternating parts, the gunfight and the fugitives trying to outsmart and outrun those determined to kill them, and flashbacks that reveal just how tough, ornery, and crooked folks can get when faced with temptation, opportunity, and easy money. The Powers were no angels, but then neither were the lawmen nor the local cowboys. Cobb’s vivid descriptions of these wounded outlaws and expert, visceral suspense make this one of the best westerns of the year. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Cobb can really write. He develops characters and describes action as well as anyone who’s done it. Put this one on your list.”—Elmore Leonard, author of Raylan: A Novel

“To me, though, the beautifully narrated chase was everything, the Power boys reading tracks, reading the land, re-shoeing their horses, riding for their lives, and me, reading for mine.”—Alan Cheuse, NPR

“Cobb’s vivid descriptions of these wounded outlaws and expert, visceral suspense make this one of the best westerns of the year.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“With Blood in Their Eyes is much more than a chase story. It’s a rich read, often told through flashbacks. Cobb’s research is impeccable, his spartan prose poetic, and his description of the land transforms the country into a vivid, brutal character itself.”—True West

“A narrative with the force of humanity behind it. This is a quality piece of historical fiction.”—Southwestern American Literature

“Tom Cobb is a man who knows and writes of the West and archetypal Americans like few others. A singular achievement.”—Scott Cooper, director of the film Crazy Heart

“Cobb delivers again with a brilliantly conceived novel of the waning days of frontier Arizona. He knows the land and the people and he brings them vividly to life in this tale of crime, pursuit, and adventure where nothing is quite as it seems. It is, as they used to say, a page-turner.”—Paul Hutton, editor of Roundup!: Western Writers of America Presents Great Stories of the West from Today’s Leading Western Writers

From the Publisher