Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
Hard Country (Kevin Kerney -1)
by
Michael McGarrity (Goodreads Author)
In the wake of his wife's death while giving birth to their son, and the loss of his brother on the West Texas plains, John Kerney is forced to give up his ranch, leave his son behind, and strike out in search of the murderous outlaws and a place where he can start over. He drifts south until he meets a man who offers him work railing cattle to the New Mexico Territory and...more
Hardcover, 608 pages
Published
May 2012
by Dutton
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
446)
The story was slow moving, with far too many historical details for my taste. I found this book difficult to get into. But the characters, especially Cal and C.J., compelled me to keep reading. I liked the matter of fact, down to earth tone of the story. Many Westerns are overdrawn, showcasing the flamboyant characteristics of the most extreme people of this era. The characters in Hard Country, though, are probably more like the average people who just lived regular lives in the American West. T...more
1 like · like · see review
view 1 comment
I picked up this book expecting a few hours of light reading about good guys in white hats and bad guys in black hats, with lots of fisticuffs and gunplay. It's not that kind of western. It's more of a pastoral novel, except that the US southwest is not pastoral. It is, as the title says, a hard country, and it takes a certain kind of grit to live there and love it. McGarrity tells a story about those kinds of people. There is a certain amount of gunplay, but of a sort that more closely approxim...more
"Hard Country" is a historical novel about the rugged southwest from the years 1875 to 1918. It's a very sad story with broken people struggling to just survive in a harsh yet beautiful land. There's no doubt that a lot of research went into this story. It felt more like a story about the land, the people (in general), and the times than the actual main characters. It had several different point-of-view characters as the years passed and people died or another character's life was better able to...more
Hard Country is a sweeping epic of the American West that tells the story of imperfect people trying to settle a harsh country.
Author Michael McGarrity, best known for his Kevin Kerney mystery series, is going back in time to the American origins of Kevin’s family. Hard Country follows Kerney’s ancestors starting with Irish immigrant and Civil War veteran John Kerney in 1874. John’s story starts with the birth of a son, the death of a wife and the murder of his brother and nephew, and it only ge...more
Author Michael McGarrity, best known for his Kevin Kerney mystery series, is going back in time to the American origins of Kevin’s family. Hard Country follows Kerney’s ancestors starting with Irish immigrant and Civil War veteran John Kerney in 1874. John’s story starts with the birth of a son, the death of a wife and the murder of his brother and nephew, and it only ge...more
Hard Country has been compared to A.B. Guthrie, Jr.'s The Way West. Michael McGarrity obviously has love of his subject matter, but his narrative falls short of epic. This interesting prequel to the Kevin Kerney mystery series has a tough row to how with the misanthropic Patric Kerney being the only protagonist alive from first page to last.
Western saga - The Kerney family and their neighbors are traced from 1875 and the birth of Patrick Kerney on the plains of Texas to 1918. The segments betwee...more
Western saga - The Kerney family and their neighbors are traced from 1875 and the birth of Patrick Kerney on the plains of Texas to 1918. The segments betwee...more
Hard Country is the first of a trilogy on the history of a family, a state and, to some extent, the nation. The family is that of McGarrity's main protagonist of his books, Kevin Kearney. Hard Country is very aptly named. The book covers the era from about 1870 to the first world war. It's how the family settles in New Mexico territory and how back-breaking life was in the Southwest in the late 19th century. This is the story of how people lived, fought and died in a very hard country - a countr...more
He's known for his mysteries, but McGarrity shows here he can also write westerns!! I loved the detail of the area and found it to be very well researched. If you are familiar with this section of the country, I think you'll love it. If you're not, I think the pacing may be a little slow at some points. The folks in this book are the ancestors of Kevin Kerney, the protagonist of McGarrity's mysteries. Being familiar with him, this led me to keep guessing about how certain characters were going t...more
i enjoyed this book so much more than i thought i would, i really didnt want it to end and am hoping there will be a sequel.
I have never been a Western fan; just not a genre i have been drawn to, however Michael McGarrity did such a fantastic job of combining interesting characters with incrediable detail that i couldnt put it down. I originally purchased the book because i am a McGarrity fan and really enjoy his Kevin Kerney series. This book takes you back to the 1800's to where Kevin's famil...more
I have never been a Western fan; just not a genre i have been drawn to, however Michael McGarrity did such a fantastic job of combining interesting characters with incrediable detail that i couldnt put it down. I originally purchased the book because i am a McGarrity fan and really enjoy his Kevin Kerney series. This book takes you back to the 1800's to where Kevin's famil...more
Enjoyed the book, especially the insight into life in Texas and New Mexico at the close of the 19th through the first few years of the 20th centuries. It made me want to go visit the localities, even though up until I read the book I had the impression the area was inhospitable and unappealing. The characters were not formula, cookie-cutter at all, which made them very interesting, yet believable. I read the hardcover version, and I hope the author gets the copy editing errors worked out on any...more
A Disappointment
I'll admit that I came to McGarrity's Hard Country via a talk radio review which raised "Lonesome Dove" expectations. I recognize those are big shoes (pages?) to fill. While the book abounds with rich descriptions of the desert Southwest, there were, alas, few characters within large enough to capture my heart. Interesting, but not 600 pages compelling. Some two-thirds of the way through, I skimmed to the end to follow the fate of one lone mensch of a man.
I'll admit that I came to McGarrity's Hard Country via a talk radio review which raised "Lonesome Dove" expectations. I recognize those are big shoes (pages?) to fill. While the book abounds with rich descriptions of the desert Southwest, there were, alas, few characters within large enough to capture my heart. Interesting, but not 600 pages compelling. Some two-thirds of the way through, I skimmed to the end to follow the fate of one lone mensch of a man.
I loved this book and can't wait for the rest. I have read all of the Kevin Kerney mysteries and it was great to get the history on the family. However, you don't need to read the series to enjoy this book. When I got to the last page I turned to page 1 and read it all over again! Mr. McGarrity recounts history of a family during the era of Homesteading in such detail that I missed some details the first time. I liked it even better the second time around!
This was a pretty good story. I read it mainly because it is based in the Tularosa Basin of southern NM where I live. His descriptions of the beauty of this area are still true. But most of the book was just stating facts. I was curious to see what came next but it didn't draw me into the characters. He needed better character development and more insight into their thoughts and actions. The ending is kind of annoying and leaves you hanging-but I don't care to read the rest of the story if he is...more
HARD COUNTRY is a novel based in New Mexico in the late 1800s through to the early 1900s. McGarrity’s characters are believable, but not all of them are likable. Sometimes I think novelist fill their books with unnecessary and repetitive details to get their books to novel length. Not so with McGarrity. Even after 624 pages, I wanted more. I will be sure to add Michael McGarrity to my “to read” list.
Excellent historical fiction. This book will appeal to both historical fiction and western fans. Michael McGarrity gets all the details of time and place perfect. This is the first book in a planned trilogy and a prequel to McGarrity's excellent mystery series. The story takes place just following the Civil War, and is set in the booming frontier of New Mexico.
A great read for McGarrity fans. I was disappointed when I heard the "next book" wasn't a Kerney story, but in fact it is. It tells the story from the beginning. McGarrity wrote a tight novel, well told, with strong characters that draw you in. I enjoyed the Kevin Kerney novels immensely,Hard Country is a great prequel and probably McGarrity's best work.
McGarrity at his best. A great read in spite of the harsh, sometimes sad, events. The characters are fully fleshed - real and believable. The dialogue is spot on. I really cared about these people. And the descriptions of the Tularosa basin are so accurate that those of us who live in New Mexico easily recognize the locations. Can't wait for volume two!
In the tradition of Larry McMurtry, Michael McGarrity has written a prequel to his Kevin Kerney mystery series. He spotlights how the Kerney men came to ranch on the Tularosa and the forces that shaped them.
Definitely can be read as a stand alone book if mysteries aren't your interest. Should be read if you like reading about Kevin, his NM and family.
Definitely can be read as a stand alone book if mysteries aren't your interest. Should be read if you like reading about Kevin, his NM and family.
This was a wonderful book that I won from Goodreads. This type of book just isn't written anymore and it should be. "Hard Country" is the multi-generational story of the Kerney family and their triumphs and tragedies as they settled the Old West. The novel reminds me of books like "Lonesome Dove" that got me hooked on reading years ago. It's been way too long since a book like this has been written! There was not one wasted page out of the 600+ that it took Michael McGarrity to tell this story....more
Reminds me of Louis L'Amour's tales. Story line is close to some of L'Amour's and the setting is the same as so many of L'Amour's books.
It was a pleasant change from what I usually read and a pleasant change from McGarrity's usual Kerney books.
Looking forward to the continuation of the story.
It was a pleasant change from what I usually read and a pleasant change from McGarrity's usual Kerney books.
Looking forward to the continuation of the story.
Hard Country never rises above the western genre. Fine for escapist reading - if you have time for 600 plus pages of sometimes bloated, always pedestrian writing. Too many coincidences, and why did McGarrity feel he had to include every famous person or event that intersected with the era and place about which he was writing? Characters were stereotypical, too often their choices don't seem to make any sense based on how the characters have been portrayed (and not developed!) but seem to have be...more
Well told, it's an epic along the lines of Lonesome Dove and Centennial. When John Kearny's wife dies in childbirth and his brother and family are murdered he becomes a cowboy eventually starting his own spread. Excellent, manly, but women will like it too. (Just like Irish Spring.)
Hard Country by Michael McGarrity covers the years 1875 to 1918 in a great story of one family and their struggle to settle in the untamed territory of New Mexico; it is well researched and well written. If you enjoy a good yarn about the 'Old West' this should fix you up just fine.
Hard Country covers the period of 1875 - 1918. We follow John Kearney as he loses his wife and places his son in the care of his sister in law after the death of his wife and his brother and nephew.John makes a living here and there until he hears Patrick is in need and then spends yrs looking for him. From there we follow John and Patrick's lives and those of their descendents going forward.
This will be the first in a trilogy bringing us up to Kevin Kearney of McGarrity's murder mystery acclaim...more
This will be the first in a trilogy bringing us up to Kevin Kearney of McGarrity's murder mystery acclaim...more
I honestly haven't thoroughly enjoyed a book as much as I have this one in quite some time. Michael McGarrity beautifully created characters I fell in love with and some that I wanted to love but was so torn by their actions. The scenery he weaves together of the west is so brutally honest. As much as I wanted to finish this book because it was so gripping, I also wanted to make it last as long as possible.
If I could give this book 10 stars I would. I definitely recommend this novel to anyone wh...more
If I could give this book 10 stars I would. I definitely recommend this novel to anyone wh...more
Absolutely one of the best westerns I have ever read, although it is unfair to label "Hard Country" as only a western. Very enjoyable read, touched with sadness. Well-developed characters, good guys (and gals) and the not-so-good. I highly recommend it.
I really enjoyed this book - the writing and narration were way above average. I would have enjoyed it more if there had been an ending that matched the story. It just sort of stopped at the nearest scene even if the scene didn't make sense
Hard Country takes place mostly in New Mexico.
It is a Western spawning three generations. I loved
the cattlemen and what they went through to survive.
It is a huge book but easy to read.
It is a Western spawning three generations. I loved
the cattlemen and what they went through to survive.
It is a huge book but easy to read.
I enjoyed the book; but the complexity of the characters (and the number of characters) has left me feeling cheated. I think perhaps this would have been better as a two part series.
A solid, straight forward western. Readers with an interest in the history of New Mexico should find it especially interesting kind of like Michener's Centennial for Colorado history fans.
Great writing - reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses". Captures the human character needed to match the harshness of an earlier time and a rough country.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
