Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2012 November 09 • Friday

My friend James lent me this book and I really enjoyed it. (The copy you see above has different, much better cover art than the copy I borrowed.)

The first line is "I was sitting outside the Commodore's mansion, waiting for my brother Charlie to come out with news of the job".

The job turns out to be an assassination, something Charlie and Eli Sisters do often and are rather well known for. They make their way from Oregon City to San Francisco during the gold-rush era of the American frontier, having amusing and unsettling encounters with various characters.

Charlie is the tougher, meaner older brother and Eli is beginning to long for a simpler life without violence. This adds a layer of conflict to some already established sibling rivalry.

The writing is gripping and frequently humorous, despite the bleak and violent nature of the story and its characters and setting, I wish I could say more about it but it's one of those books that seemed especially rewarding because I didn't know anything about it before reading it.