The Hot Country

August 20, 2012
Pulitzer Prizeâwinner Butler's ambitious first crime novel introduces Christopher Marlowe "Kit" Cobb, an American war correspondent who has come to Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1914 to cover the country's civil war. A passionate believer in the power of a free press and the moral superiority of the United States, Kit is no mere observer. He assumes a false identity to pursue German diplomat Friedrich von Mensinger en route to a meeting with revolutionary leader Pancho Villa, and the correspondent soon finds himself up to his neck in political intrigue. The large cast includes laundress Luisa Morales, a pretty señorita with whom Kit becomes romantically involved; Gerhard Vogel, an American-born German soldier; and a resourceful pickpocket, Diego, who acts as Kit's eyes and ears. A fine stylist, Butler (A Small Hotel) renders the time and place in perfect detail, though readers should be prepared for a sluggish plot that lingers over the minutiae of the political machinations. Agent: Warren Frazier, John Hawkins & Associates.

September 1, 2012
Prolific Pulitzer Prize winner Butler (A Small Hotel, 2011, etc.) casts his net in distinctly shallower waters when he follows the adventures of a brash American journalist in 1914 Mexico. Revolution is raging, as usual, when Christopher "Kit" Marlowe Cobb arrives in Mexico to interview Gen. Victoriano Huerta. Preoccupied with the rebels Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza, el Presidente declines to speak with the press after all. By that time, however, an international incident is brewing between Mexico and the U.S., and Kit figures there'll be plenty of work of one sort or another for him and his Underwood. So he's already on the alert when oompah band musician Gerhard Vogel suddenly reveals himself as an American spy who shares Kit's interest in the question of why the German ship Ypiranga has disgorged sinister "businessman" Friedrich von Mensinger and a number of his countrymen and loosed them on Vera Cruz. Tearing himself from his abortive pursuit of Luisa Morales, who washes his clothes but refuses to provide other services, Kit joins Vogel in his investigation of Mensinger only to find himself working alone when Vogel's throat is cut. Acting with more decisiveness than prudence, Kit pinches the passport from Vogel's corpse and prepares to follow Mensinger to Coahuila, where strongman Pancho Villa reigns supreme. There'll be more subdiplomatic shenanigans, more violence (Kit ends up killing four men), and, yes, more romance before Kit, home again in Chicago, receives a letter from President Wilson that sends him back to Mexico for a coda that seems oddly tacked on. Kit is such an ingratiating narrator that you almost forget how unthrilling his larky debut is. Maybe the planned series can provide him with adventures more worthy of his steel.

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Starred review from November 15, 2012
Butler takes his first crack at crime fiction with this stylish historical thriller set in civil wartorn Mexico in 1914. Christopher Marlowe Cobb (call him Kit ) is a newspaper war correspondent in search of action, so naturally he winds up in Vera Cruz just as the American navy is staging a very peculiar mini-invasion. Kit would like to get to the bottom of that, and he would also like to score an interview with Pancho Villa. Then there's the matter of the Mexican woman who may be a laundress but may also be something very differentand with whom Kit has very definitely fallen in love. And let's not forget the German entourage: What are they doing in Vera Cruz? Along the way to answering all those questions, Kit gets more directly involved in the fighting than he'd planned. (And so do we: Butler's multipage, one-sentence description of a gun battle between Villa's troops and the Federales is a virtuoso feat of breathless, high-energy descriptive prose.) The plot of this multistranded thriller is at times difficult to follow, but the character studies, sense of place, and mood are utterly gripping. The hard-bitten war correspondent is a staple of the thriller genre, of course, but Butler brings new depth and flair to the familiar figure; only Fowler in Graham Greene's The Quiet American (1956) or perhaps Russell Cruz-Price, Kent Harrington's dissolute journalist in Red Jungle (2005), comes close to Kit Marlowe for that irresistible mix of been-there-twice-seen-this-shit-before cynicism and its polar opposite, an unquenchable desire to see if the next card turned just might be something special. Reviewers feel that way, too, sometimes, but the card this book turns is definitely something special.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2012

Pulitzer Prize-winner Butler is a restless, questing writer whose topics and style vary widely from book to book. His 13th novel (after A Small Hotel) is his first spy thriller, and it's good. When crack reporter Christopher Marlowe Cobb lands in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in April 1914, he finds no war to report on. American troops are on the ground, but President Woodrow Wilson seems reluctant to move them. The Germans, sensing an advantage in the Mexican resentment of Americans, dispatch a secret emissary to woo Pancho Villa to their side. Can Kit stop him? VERDICT The plot clips along, and Kit is an attractive hero. But Butler writes action scenes almost too well: the stream-of-consciousness tone doesn't mesh with the novel's punchy prose style and Kit's ironic asides. But this is a minor criticism in an otherwise enjoyable novel that should attract devotees of espionage and historical fiction. Let's hope we see more of Kit Cobb, reluctant hero. [See Prepub Alert, 4/30/12.]--David Keymer, Modesto CA

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2012

Having ranged from the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain to the wicked fun of Hell, Butler tries something completely different: a thriller. Christopher Marlowe ("Kit") Cobb, an early 20th-century American war correspondent reporting on Mexico's civil war, witnesses the attempted assassination of a priest and the arrival of strange ships bearing German officials--and that's just the beginning. Especially promising for your smart thriller readers; with a 12-city tour.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.