“The guiding spirit here is Dickens . . . An entertaining, well-paced yarn.”

Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“... took me by the hand and didn’t let go.... I will not forget this road trip quest and its endearing characters.”

—Patti Callahan Henry

“...should take its place alongside the very best novels of the American West..."

—Ben Fountain

"A treasure: a brilliant, beautiful page-turner...Both a poignant love story and a riveting road novel — I devoured it."

—Chris Bohjalian

“ONE LONG RIVETING EPISTLE THAT READS LIKE MUSIC.”

—Nathaniel Ian Miller

“A MARVEL … CROOK IS A MAGICIAN OF A NOVELIST.”

—Nathan Harris

The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook
Portrait of Elizabeth Crook; Credit: Charla Wood
Author photo copyright © Charla Wood

The Madstone named one of People’s Best New Books to Read in November

One of The Washington Post 50 notable works of fiction for 2023

One of Apple’s Best Books of November

One of Texas Observer‘s 2023 Must-Read Lone Star Books

 

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by Elizabeth Crook

“The tale that Elizabeth Crook conjures out of the most basic materials—a man goes on a trip, things happen, and the trip becomes a quest—should take its place alongside the very best novels of the American West, a top rank that includes Lonesome Dove, Little Big Man, News of the World, and Blood Meridian. Yes, it’s that good; I didn’t want it to end. Benjamin Shreve and his compatriots affected me as few characters have in recent years, and I think of them still.”

—Ben Fountain, National Book Critics Circle Award winner, National Book Award finalist, and New York Times bestselling author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

Texas hill country, 1868. As nineteen-year-old Benjamin Shreve tends to business in his workshop, he witnesses a stagecoach strand a passenger. When the man, a treasure hunter, persuades Benjamin to help track down the coach—and a mysterious fortune left aboard—Benjamin is drawn into a drama whose scope he could never have imagined, for they discover on reaching the coach that its passengers include Nell, a pregnant young woman, and her four-year-old son, Tot, who are fleeing Nell’s brutal husband and his murderous brothers.

Having told the Freedmen’s Bureau the whereabouts of her husband’s gang—a sadistic group wanted for countless acts of harassment and violence against Black citizens—Nell is in grave danger. If her husband catches her, he will take their son. Learning of their plight, Benjamin offers to deliver Nell and Tot to a distant port on the Gulf of Mexico, where they can board a ship to safety. He is joined in this chivalrous act by two other companions: the treasure hunter whose stranding began this endeavor and a restless Black Seminole who is a veteran of wars on both sides of the Rio Grande and who has an escape plan of his own.

Fraught with jeopardy from the outset, the trek across Texas becomes still more dangerous as buried secrets, including a cursed necklace, emerge. And even as Benjamin falls in love with Nell and imagines a life as Tot’s father, vengeful pursuers are never far behind. 

With its vivid characters and expansive canvas, The Madstone calls to mind the storytelling of American epics by Larry McMurtry and Charles Portis. Yet Elizabeth Crook’s new novel is a singular achievement. Told in Benjamin’s resolute and unforgettable voice, it is full of eccentric action, unrelenting peril, and droll humor—a thrilling and beautifully rendered story of three people sharing a hazardous and defining journey that will forever bind them together.

Lone Star Literary Life interviews Elizabeth Crook

A short video of Elizabeth discussing The Madstone during an event hosted by Little, Brown, with introductory remarks by Senior V.P and Publisher Bruce Nichols.

ELIZABETH CROOK, a recipient of the Texas Writer Award, has published five previous novels, including The Which Way Tree; The Night Journal, which received the Spur Award from Western Writers of America; and Monday, Monday, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her family. | More about the Author

“Not since True Grit have I read a novel as charming, exciting, suspenseful, and pitch-perfect as The Which Way Tree.”

—Ron Hansen, author of The Kid and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

“Unlike anything I’ve read before…This book is the stuff of legends, tales told for a hundred years around Texas campfires. Written in a form that is historically accurate and yet feels painstakingly intimate.”

—Attica Locke, author of Bluebird, Bluebird