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324th out of 3,222 books
—
14,002 voters
Deep Creek
by
Dana Hand (Goodreads Author)
Idaho Territory, June 1887. A small-town judge takes his young daughter fishing, and she catches a man. Another body surfaces, then another. The final toll: over 30 Chinese gold miners brutally murdered. Their San Francisco employer hires Idaho lawman Joe Vincent to solve the case.
Soon he journeys up the wild Snake River with Lee Loi, an ambitious young company investigato...more
Soon he journeys up the wild Snake River with Lee Loi, an ambitious young company investigato...more
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
February 10th 2010
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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Community Reviews
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1-30
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686)
Aug 23, 2010
Pete
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who likes historical fiction that moves right along yet makes you think
Recommended to Pete by:
neighbors
Shelves:
historical-fiction-with-an-edge
I liked the quieter stretches of the book even more than the action sections, because all the "Deep Creek" characters feel so real. The recreation of late-19th-century life is very well done. The story links and loops, bringing in the lives of the Chinese victims, the villains and the investigators, plus showing how one of the worst crimes in US history had roots in the shameful Nez Perce War, and also the many exploitations (resource and human) that won the West but lost any hope of equal just...more
MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.
It's been a couple months since I read this, I'm late at entering it into this journal. So my memory has slipped a bit.
This is the story, based on historical fact, set in the 1880s, of a white man in a small Oregon town who does his best to investigate and prosecute the slaughter of a company of Chinese miners working out on a remote creek.
The white man is police judge Joe Vincent who's as adept as Sherlock Holmes at inhabiting a disguise. He goes undercover to help deduce w...more
It's been a couple months since I read this, I'm late at entering it into this journal. So my memory has slipped a bit.
This is the story, based on historical fact, set in the 1880s, of a white man in a small Oregon town who does his best to investigate and prosecute the slaughter of a company of Chinese miners working out on a remote creek.
The white man is police judge Joe Vincent who's as adept as Sherlock Holmes at inhabiting a disguise. He goes undercover to help deduce w...more
Mar 23, 2010
Mark Pedersen
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone with an open mind
Recommended to Mark by:
friend at work
Completely uncool confession: I feel I am a better person for having read this book.
I also enjoyed the author website: http://www.dana-hand.com/
I also enjoyed the author website: http://www.dana-hand.com/
Feb 27, 2010
Lin Browne
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
all who like American fiction; multicultural fiction
Recommended to Lin by:
book group
Shelves:
historical-fiction-smart-thriller
I definitely want to be Grace Sundown when I grow up. Verdict: A keeper. When's the movie?
Dana Hand’s debut novel Deep Creek opens with an unforgettable scene. In 1887, a small-town judge and his daughter go fishing in the Snake River in Idaho Territory. The girl throws in a line and catches a man. Soon, more bodies are bobbing in the flood-swollen river and the judge, Joe Vincent, has a mass-murder mystery on his hands.
The corpses—shot, hacked, disemboweled, dismembered—are Chinese miners who have traveled deep into Hells Canyon where they met their fate at the titular Deep Creek. E...more
The corpses—shot, hacked, disemboweled, dismembered—are Chinese miners who have traveled deep into Hells Canyon where they met their fate at the titular Deep Creek. E...more
Deep Creek is a historical novel that recounts the story of an 1887 massacre of more than 30 Chinese gold miners in a remote area of Idaho along the Snake River. The story begins when a small town judge and former sheriff, Joe Vincent, takes his ten year old daughter, Nell, fishing and Nell ends up snagging a body…and then another one, and another one. The Chinese miners working for the Sam Yup Company have been brutally murdered and their bodies mutilated. Vincent ends up working with a represe...more
This novel is based on a true crime story of the Old West. In 1887 35-40 Chinese miners were massacred at Deep Creek in Hell's Canyon, Oregon along the Snake River. Chinese were generally thought of as something less than human at the time, and Indians hardly more worthy of consideration. Despite this attitude, Joe Vincent, a former judge of Lewiston in Idaho Territory was hired by the Sam Yup company representative, Lee Loi, to investigate the murder of its employees. Vincent in turn hired half...more
A fascinating account that's equally effective as mystery, Western history and character study (Las Vegas Review-Journal), this gripping, complex novel captivated the critics with its moving story, engaging characters, and stark, evocative writing. Building a novel around actual events can be tricky, but these first-time novelists carry it off with aplomb, seamlessly interweaving fact and fiction to fill in the historical gaps. Howarth and Matthews paint a vivid, visceral portrait of the Old Wes...more
Deep Creek is a crime drama set in 1877 Idaho. A small-town lawman and his daughter hook a mutilated body while fishing the Snake River. And so begins the parallel stories the mass murder of 30 Chinese gold miners and the subsequent investigation, which is bankrolled by the victims’ San Francisco employer and conducted by the lawman, an ambitious young Company investigator and a female half-Indian mountain guide.
As they track the killers across the rugged Pacific Northwest of the late nineteent...more
As they track the killers across the rugged Pacific Northwest of the late nineteent...more
I had trouble rating this one. In the end I enjoyed it more than I did for most of the reading of it. It was an interesting story, based on facts (a big plus for me) with characters whose story I wanted to learn. It concerns the massacre of 30+ Chinese miners in the Idaho Territory in the late 1880's and of Joe Vincent's determination to find out what happened and bring the perpetrators to justice. The problem I had with the book is that I had trouble following much of the story. It moved back a...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Feb 25, 2010
Ellen Schappe
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who likes a really good story
Recommended to Ellen by:
friends
Crime, justice, family, long-lost love: this book has all the elements I like. "Deep Creek" is a fast-moving thriller about a terrible genocidal crime in 1887 Idaho. But it ranks with any historical novel I have read. The villains, male and female, are genuinely scary. The trio of investigators, like their families and friends, are ordinary, likable, fallible people forced into heroism. There's a touch of the supernatural, too, just enough for eeriness, and in the end we witness justice done, th...more
I read this because I don't usually read books in the Western genre and this looked like it would be doable - historical fiction based on an actual massacre of Chinese miners and one lawman's obsessive struggle to see their killers brought to justice. Great, right? Not so much.
This was co-written by two authors who normally publish non-fiction history and it shows. The book jumps all over the place in tone and style making it very difficult to keep track of the relatively small number of charact...more
This was co-written by two authors who normally publish non-fiction history and it shows. The book jumps all over the place in tone and style making it very difficult to keep track of the relatively small number of charact...more
May 13, 2010
Andybaines
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Those who like a good story that illuminates America then and now
Recommended to Andybaines by:
office friends
Shelves:
historical-fiction
I don't usually like pre-20th-century historical fiction but I saw the rave review in the Washington Post and decided to try this. I finished it a week ago and am still thinking about it. It's like I lived it. And the fact that it's a dramatization of a real incident makes the novel all the more compelling, IMHO. The writing is very clear (not self-consciously fancy), the present-day parallels are all too strong, and I find I miss the core characters, Joe, Henry and Lee Loi especially. Dana Hand...more
Really, really good. Love the ghost story at its core. An unusually well written novel. (Reminded me of Stegner, in fact.) It was easy to identify with all the characters, whether Chinese, Nez Perce or Anglo. The authors have a definite gift for conveying feeling in an intense yet economical way, just as the quest after justice is nicely scary but also satisfies emotionally. Bad guys are extremely bad, but the real killers were probably very like they way they are portrayed here. I know this par...more
From the jacket: "A small-town judge takes his young daughter fishing, and she catches a man. Another body surfaces, then another. The final toll: more than thirty Chinese gold miners brutally murdered".
This book is based on actual events in Hells Canyon in 1887, of which I had never heard. I was a little disapointed at first as the authors, Will Howarth and Anne Matthews are nonfiction writers and their style is not the novel story I expected. After I adjusted, I found the book very interesting...more
This book is based on actual events in Hells Canyon in 1887, of which I had never heard. I was a little disapointed at first as the authors, Will Howarth and Anne Matthews are nonfiction writers and their style is not the novel story I expected. After I adjusted, I found the book very interesting...more
Excellent story--I could really identify with all the characters, the hunt for the killers is exciting and terrifying, I like the way that the search for justice brought together people who had been enemies and made them a team and then a kind of family, and most of all I like the freaky Chinese ghosts. This is the best kind of historical fiction: taking facts about a real incident and weaving a fast-moving tale around them. I learned a lot about racism in America without ever feeling condescend...more
based on a real incident, the vicious sadistic massacre of a group of chinese gold miners in the idaho territory in the late 1800's, deep creek follows the investigation as it might have played out, using many of the real people as characters. though interesting enough, the way it was told was, to me, rather disjointed and broken; almost a staccoto way of writing. I would have enjoyed it more if it had flowed more easily, but that's my own personal taste. the historical details on how we treated...more
Apr 25, 2010
Randy Walzer
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
history buffs; procedural fans; those who like a novel of conscience
Recommended to Randy by:
friends
You have to pay attention all the way through, and be willing to sink into a convincingly recreated West at the very end of frontier days, and also (frankly) be fairly smart to follow a challenging plot and characters that reveal their stories and secrets bit by bit. A jigsaw puzzle of a book, like all good investigations. Highly recommended, but not a conventional or traditional story. Writing is very fine throughout, concise yet freighted with meaning and feeling. I also learned a lot about pl...more
A wonderful novel. The three worlds are very clear and convincing (white, Native American, Chinese) and I love the deep backstory provided for the main characters, especially the inimitable Grace Sundown. I notice that some reviewers object to the prose style, and the only reason I can imagine is that it is too subtle, especially for people who gobble genre fiction. The book is beautifully written, in the manner of Cather and Hemingway, with deceptively limpid prose covering a great deal of feel...more
Not an easy read, but an easy read would be impossible considering the subject matter. On one hand you have the horrible fate of the Chinese miners, and on the other hand you've got totally apathy about their fate from 99% of the characters in the book. Only the four main characters and a handful of peripheral characters care at all, and they are doomed to be disappointed in the outcome. That being said, the author did a great job of keeping the story engaging, and not burning out the reader. It...more
A while back I either heard about this book or the non-fiction book, Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon by R. Gregory Nokes, which I will probably now pick up. At any rate, they are both about a massacre of 30-40 Chinese miners in the late 1880s.
There are compelling characters - Judge Joe Vincent, Grace Sundown, Nell. I guess you would call Libby and Vollmer compelling also but not in a very complimentary way.
This was the first I'd ever heard of "ether parties". Ether worked as a le...more
There are compelling characters - Judge Joe Vincent, Grace Sundown, Nell. I guess you would call Libby and Vollmer compelling also but not in a very complimentary way.
This was the first I'd ever heard of "ether parties". Ether worked as a le...more
I thought this historical novel would be a good choice for my book club because we live near where the event - the Chinese massacre of 1887 - took place. Our group has enjoyed several historical fiction titles and this book got great reviews.
So much for trusting the reviews. No one in the group (myself included) liked the book. A few members didn't even bother to finish it. The only positive thing about this choice was that it did increase the awareness of the actual event.
Reading the book was...more
So much for trusting the reviews. No one in the group (myself included) liked the book. A few members didn't even bother to finish it. The only positive thing about this choice was that it did increase the awareness of the actual event.
Reading the book was...more
Good historical fiction is hard to find and this is pretty nearly flawless. The research is invisibly woven into a what-might-have been story about a horrific forgotten race crime in Hells Canyon, and the tie-ins with modern issues, like US-Chinese relations and racism in general could not be more relevant. Characters persuasive, action thrilling, setting a powerful ingredient. This would be an excellent TV miniseries, like The Hatfields and McCoys.
Usually I avoid historical novels because of the blatant errors and inadvertent howlers. A colleague persuaded me to take a chance on DEEP CREEK and I am delighted I did: this is one of the finest historical novels I've read (and, yes, enjoyed) in years. I only wish BBC America or HBO would make this story of love and justice into a miniseries. I think it could be outstanding, especially if filmed on location in Hells Canyon.
A fictionalized account of a very real, but very forgotten, massacre in the 19th century American West, Hand (really the pen name of writers Will Howarth and Anne Matthews) brings to life not only the hero, GAR veteran, ex-county sheriff and all-around good guy Judge J.K. Vincent, but the nearly 40 Chinese miners so cruelly murdered because of greed. It's rare, even in this day and age, to have a Western with a deeply Eastern--so to speak--heart.
This mystery set in the post civil war Pacific Northwest had a few technical issues which troubled me throughout the novel. the plot itself is fascinating and based on the actual slaughter of over 30 Chinese gold miners. when they stick to known facts, the authors do very well, but when they stray into fiction, their lack of experience shows. Their exposition of character is fine, but their characters never really come to life. They have the annoying tendency of giving their characters far too p...more
I enjoyed this one after I got used to the author's weird style of writing. Partial sentences. Not sure who he is talking about. Or when. A good story, a little difficult to follow at first. It is historical fiction about the Northeastern Oregon and Southern Idaho, based on a true event in which more than 30 Chinese miners were murdered. I think it would be interesting to people who live in that area.
A really good story, and I like the way you do not find out everything all at once but it dawns on you, along with the investigators. I strongly dislike books that condescend or spoonfeed, and this one respects reader intelligence. The trio of investigators: very appealing. Grace Sundown is especially well done. Highly recommended for anyone who thinks the past is still present in American life.
Susan Craig recommended this novel, based on a real historical event. In 1886, some 30 Chinese immigrants were murdered along the Snake River in northwest Idaho Territory, just across the river from Oregon. In the novel a 60-something prominent white citizen of Lewiston, Idaho, teams up with a young, Yale-educated Chinese representative of the company for whom the victims worked and a metis guide to try to gather enough evidence to convict the murderers. (It’s not really a mystery because we kno...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Is Joe a patriot? Is Jackson? | 3 | 6 | Feb 25, 2010 09:18am | |
| Why does Joe try so hard to ensure justice for the dead Chinese miners? | 3 | 3 | Feb 22, 2010 07:51am |
