Cottonwood

(Paperback)

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Description

In 1872, Cottonwood, Kansas, is a one-horse speck on the map; a community of run-down farms, dusty roads, and two-bit crooks. Self-educated saloon owner and photographer Bill Ogden looks on his adopted town with an eye to making a profit or getting out. His brains and ambition bring him to the attention of one Marc Leval, a wealthy Chicago developer with big plans for the small town. The advent of the railroad and rumors of a cattle trail turn Cottonwood into a wild and wooly boomtown-and with Leval as a partner, Ogden dreams of bringing civilization to the prairie. But civilizing the Great Plains was never that simple. While many in Cottonwood distrust Leval's motives, and mob violence threatens to derail the town's dreams of greatness, Ogden finds himself dangerously obsessed with Leval's stunningly beautiful wife. Meanwhile, plying its sinister trade unnoticed, an apparently ordinary local farm family quietly butchers traveling salesmen, weary travelers, and other unsuspecting wanderers. In his own inimitable brand of narrative wizardry, Scott Phillips traces the metamorphosis of a frontier town that becomes a lightning rod for sin, corruption, and murder. He also brings to life actual crimes that befell Kansas in the 1870s and 1880s, carried out by a strange clan who popularly became known as the Bloody Benders. Brilliantly written, maliciously fun, and full of many surprises, Cottonwood is historical fiction at its finest. From the author of New York Times Notable book The Ice Harvest, a cult classic of Western Noir set in a 19th century Kansas frontier town rocked by a series of of brutal murders, Introducing photographer and saloon owner Bill Ogden. Perfect for fans of Deadwood and Justified In 1872, Cottonwood, Kansas, is a one-horse speck on the map; a community of run-down farms, dusty roads, and two-bit crooks. Self-educated saloon owner and photographer Bill Ogden looks on his adopted town with an eye to making a profit or getting out. His brains and ambition bring him to the attention of one Marc Leval, a wealthy Chicago developer with big plans for the small town. The advent of the railroad and rumors of a cattle trail turn Cottonwood into a wild and wooly boomtown-and with Leval as a partner, Ogden dreams of bringing civilization to the prairie. But civilizing the Great Plains was never that simple. While many in Cottonwood distrust Leval's motives, and mob violence threatens to derail the town's dreams of greatness, Ogden finds himself dangerously obsessed with Leval's stunningly beautiful wife. Meanwhile, plying its sinister trade unnoticed, an apparently ordinary local farm family quietly butchers traveling salesmen, weary travelers, and other unsuspecting wanderers. In his own inimitable brand of narrative wizardry, Scott Phillips traces the metamorphosis of a frontier town that becomes a lightning rod for sin, corruption, and murder. He also brings to life actual crimes that befell Kansas in the 1870s and 1880s, carried out by a strange clan who popularly became known as the Bloody Benders. Brilliantly written, maliciously fun, and full of many surprises, Cottonwood is historical fiction at its finest.

Reviews

Praise for Cottonwood

"[Phillips] writes about criminal behaviors . . . with wit and gusto . . . That Ogden stays unpredictable to the end is a tribute to [Phillips's] refusal to rewrite history and whitewash the hellions who built this nation."
The New York Times Book Review

"An indelible portrait of a haunted town, as starkly delineated and unsparing as an antique tintype."
Entertainment Weekly

"An adventurous, bawdy, and genre-bending epic. Scott Phillips cements his reputation as a fearless, ambitious writer who never makes a false move."
George Pelecanos

"Scott Phillips is dark, dangerous, and important. Cottonwood is crime fiction at its best."
Michael Connelly

"Unique and pungent prose . . . It's not Phillips's thoughtful, exciting plotting but rather his amazing ear for the sad sounds behind the words of his people that make his novels so exceptional."
Chicago Tribune

Gunfights and murders, lynchings and thefts . . . It is Western-noir with a touch of the gothic.
Rocky Mountain News

Phillips takes the reader on a witty ride into a sometimes humorous, sometimes grotesque version of life on the Kansas prairie.
Winston-Salem Journal

In a book that is as much history as mystery, Scott Phillips makes the dirt streets and rough life of the Kansas prairie come alive.
Kansas City Star

[Phillips] not only has hit the literary equivalent of three homers in a row with his first three novels, but each one has been a grand slam.
Chicago Sun-Times

The crime writer to watch. His first novel, The Ice Harvest, was a pitch-perfect slice of noir; he followed this with a quirky but equally impressive prequel, The Walkaway. Now he's produced Cottonwood, a genre-bending Western cum serial killer and mystery story that is unflinchingly violent and laugh-out-loud funny. I absolutely loved this book.
The Guardian

If the novel starts like Blazing Saddles with additional dialogue by Charles Dickens (in unusually jaundiced and violent mood) there is the promise that it will turn into The Texas Chainsaw Massacre . . . funny, strange, hypnotic.
The Daily Telegraph

The blazingly original Phillips writes with deadpan humor and incisive irony . . . A major achievement.
Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

Author Bio

Scott Phillips is a screenwriter, photographer and the author of seven novels and numerous short stories. His bestselling debut novel, The Ice Harvest, was a New York Times Notable Book and was adapted as a major motion picture starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton. He is the winner of the California Book Award, as well as being a finalist for the Edgar Award, the Hammett Prize and the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Scott was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas and lived for many years in France. He now lives with his wife and daughter in St. Louis, Missouri.