Cold Country

"This is a love letter to the small-town, rough-and-tumble, fisticuff-heavy ranch life of fifty years ago. ... A quick-moving, plainspoken, mostly charming exploration of the hardscrabble life of the livestock rancher of old." —Kirkus Reviews "The murder mystery propels the story, but Rowland’s clear-eyed look at mid-twentieth-century rural life provides a satisfying portrait of the frayed bonds within a community whose members must sometimes depend on people who repel them." —Publishers Weekly "The puzzle pieces will hit you like a sledgehammer. ... [A] must read if you like small town settings, relationships that go deeper than suspected, and characteristics you didn’t see coming." —Defrosting Cold Cases "Rowland captures Big Sky country in 1968 with aplomb. This is not a rough-and-tumble Western by any means, as the contemplative nature of what motivates a person to do right or wrong is his focus. ... Rowland reveals his mastery of the human condition through the lives of ordinary people in the state he clearly loves." —Historical Novel Society "Russell Rowland’s new novel, set in the shadow of the Bighorn Mountains, is a murder mystery of sorts, but while readers are rapidly turning pages to learn who did it, they’ll also find that Rowland is peeling away the layers of a larger mystery: how can it be that those to whom we are closest—our friends, our neighbors, our family members—remain so unknowable to us? Cold Country is remarkable in many respects, perhaps chiefly in the way Russell Rowland finds extraordinary drama in ordinary lives." —Larry Watson, author of Montana 1948 and Let Him Go "I can’t think of an easier pick for a book club than a page-turning murder mystery with multifaceted characters, a profoundly satisfying ending, and plenty to induce a spirited debate! In COLD COUNTRY, Russell Rowland places his finger on the pulse of a small Montana ranching community and the outsiders hoping to set up a home there. Writing in the tradition of Hemingway, Steinbeck, and McCarthy, Rowland’s powerful style fools with its simplicity, and he often turns his eye toward the harsh realities of daily living (stitching the wounds of livestock, facilitating a birth, disciplining a child) to uncover beauty, tenderness, and meaning. As he digs deep into the hearts of his characters, we recognize our own tangled relationships, the burden of the secrets we keep, our own prejudices, our fears of being alone, unloved, or unwanted. Like the land he writes about, this book will leave you humbled, wrestling, and in awe." --Susan Henderson, author of Up from the Blue and Flicker of Old Dreams "Years ago, I wrote that Russell Rowland was like a cross between Richard Ford and John Irving. I hereby revise that opinion. He’s better. He’s warmer, more relaxed—and also more alert to the tensions between people. There’s a moment early in the book where a key character tastes some blood in his mouth during a quiet 'neighborhood chat.' I’ve had that moment—in a faraway, very different place. I was suddenly right there in Rowland’s world, in the shadow of the Bighorn Mountains. That’s fine writing. I try not to taste blood in my mouth often. COLD COUNTRY is one of the best books I’ve read in half a century of very hard living and reading." —Kris Saknussemm, author of Private Midnight and Reverend America