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The Adventures of Nick & Carter #2
The Crying Cowboy
Sunday, January 25, 1970
Nick and Carter are home, at last, from nearly three years of roaming the world and are glad to be back in the City by the Bay.
It just so happens that their return coincides with the filming of Monumental's newest TV show at the Folsom Street studio.
Lola Dunbar, hot off Monumental's most successful series to date, is getting her own spin-off!
Everyone is excited about the second black actress to lead a cast on network TV, following Diahann Carroll's big hit on NBC as Julia.
Well... truth be told... not everyone is excited.
Lola's leading man is turning out to be a real handful, for one thing...
Potential sponsors are concerned about how the show will be received in the South...
And the network hasn't given the show a timeslot yet...
Nick, who really hates TV, is unexpectedly thrown into the role of managing a production that is threatening to spin out of control.
And that's just where things start in Nick and Carter's next adventure: The Crying Cowboy.
237 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 9, 2019
17 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Frank W. Butterfield
123 books106 followersFrank W. Butterfield, not an assumed name, loves old movies, wise-cracking smart guys with hearts of gold, and writing for fun.
Although he worships San Francisco, he lives at the beach on another coast.
Born on a windy day in November of 1966, he was elected President of his high school Spanish Club in the spring of 1983.
After moving across these United States like a rapid-fire pinball, he currently makes his home in a hurricane-proof apartment with superior water pressure that was built in 1926.
While he hasn't met any dolphins personally, that invitation is always open.
Although he worships San Francisco, he lives at the beach on another coast.
Born on a windy day in November of 1966, he was elected President of his high school Spanish Club in the spring of 1983.
After moving across these United States like a rapid-fire pinball, he currently makes his home in a hurricane-proof apartment with superior water pressure that was built in 1926.
While he hasn't met any dolphins personally, that invitation is always open.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 28, 2019
I like this one - it takes place entirely in San Francisco, and it's approaching the time that I moved here (well, at least, it's in the same decade). But mostly, I'm excited, because, according to GoodReads, this was the 100th book I read in 2019 - how is that even possible?
December 22, 2019
The Crying Cowboy (Adventures of Nick & Carter 2)
By Frank W. Butterfield
Published by the author, 2019
Four stars
“I’m a fireman and I’ve got the hose to prove it.”
“Oh, brother.”
Will Nick find a new career? Will Nick and Carter get through a dinner without interruption? Will our boys ever be able to return to Los Angeles County?
This second installment in Frank Butterfield’s new Nick & Carter series (actually, the old series liberated from its “mystery” mantle) almost ends in a cliffhanger. Well, it certainly ends abruptly, and I was a bit put off. I had QUESTIONS. But the author has such an aggressive timetable for releasing new books, I’m afraid he drives himself too hard.
Let’s set the stage: the year is 1970. Nick is forty-eight and Carter is about to turn fifty. I am fifteen, and will start prep school in the fall, after I drag my poor father around England during the summer for two solid weeks looking at stately homes. Oops. Let myself slip in there, didn’t I?
Well, there you go. For me, this is not quite the same nostalgic look at the bad old days that the earlier books in this series were. This all takes place during my life, and the most shocking thing to me reading this is the fact that, as an adolescent, I was completely oblivious to the idea of closeted gay movie stars and racist television networks. I watched Diahann Carroll avidly as “Julia” on TV; I saw Rock Hudson with Doris Day in “Pillow Talk” on the Saturday afternoon movietime. I had no freaking clue, as a carefully coddled upper-middle-class white boy, that people like Nick and Carter, even as billionaires, might not be able to go to LA because of an outstanding indictment on charges of sodomy. This, mind you, a year AFTER the Stonewall rebellion, about which I knew nothing. By 1971 I acknowledged to myself that I was gay; and by 1975 I would come out at college. But in 1970, that was all an unimaginable future for me.
As Nick and Carter face serious middle age (40 is only practice), they are both yearning to stay at home, which is the Victorian mansion on Nob Hill rebuilt by the Williams family after the 1906 earthquake and fire. On the other hand, Nick is also restless, wanting to do something more than sit around counting his money while handing out hundred-dollar tips. Carter has his publishing house, but for Nick this is something of a mid-life crisis moment.
The central plot focuses on the production launch of a new television series from Monumental Studios, Nick and Carter’s Hollywood enterprise. Out of that spins a marvelous spot-on series of complications dealing with the movie industry’s hypocrisies regarding race and sexuality.
Secondarily, however, Butterfield drops in a rather heart-stopping sub-plot focused on a tragic failure of modern technology that strikes both Nick and Carter where their hearts are. Like the moral and social failure of Hollywood, this subplot reminds us that, for all their wealth and their shiny toys, society continues to fail Nick and Carter, and by extension every non-straight, non-white person.
The only thing of real value that Nick and Carter have is their love, which is as unshakeable now as it was at the beginning of their saga. That is the continuity that keeps me reading. The rest is all smoke and mirrors.
By Frank W. Butterfield
Published by the author, 2019
Four stars
“I’m a fireman and I’ve got the hose to prove it.”
“Oh, brother.”
Will Nick find a new career? Will Nick and Carter get through a dinner without interruption? Will our boys ever be able to return to Los Angeles County?
This second installment in Frank Butterfield’s new Nick & Carter series (actually, the old series liberated from its “mystery” mantle) almost ends in a cliffhanger. Well, it certainly ends abruptly, and I was a bit put off. I had QUESTIONS. But the author has such an aggressive timetable for releasing new books, I’m afraid he drives himself too hard.
Let’s set the stage: the year is 1970. Nick is forty-eight and Carter is about to turn fifty. I am fifteen, and will start prep school in the fall, after I drag my poor father around England during the summer for two solid weeks looking at stately homes. Oops. Let myself slip in there, didn’t I?
Well, there you go. For me, this is not quite the same nostalgic look at the bad old days that the earlier books in this series were. This all takes place during my life, and the most shocking thing to me reading this is the fact that, as an adolescent, I was completely oblivious to the idea of closeted gay movie stars and racist television networks. I watched Diahann Carroll avidly as “Julia” on TV; I saw Rock Hudson with Doris Day in “Pillow Talk” on the Saturday afternoon movietime. I had no freaking clue, as a carefully coddled upper-middle-class white boy, that people like Nick and Carter, even as billionaires, might not be able to go to LA because of an outstanding indictment on charges of sodomy. This, mind you, a year AFTER the Stonewall rebellion, about which I knew nothing. By 1971 I acknowledged to myself that I was gay; and by 1975 I would come out at college. But in 1970, that was all an unimaginable future for me.
As Nick and Carter face serious middle age (40 is only practice), they are both yearning to stay at home, which is the Victorian mansion on Nob Hill rebuilt by the Williams family after the 1906 earthquake and fire. On the other hand, Nick is also restless, wanting to do something more than sit around counting his money while handing out hundred-dollar tips. Carter has his publishing house, but for Nick this is something of a mid-life crisis moment.
The central plot focuses on the production launch of a new television series from Monumental Studios, Nick and Carter’s Hollywood enterprise. Out of that spins a marvelous spot-on series of complications dealing with the movie industry’s hypocrisies regarding race and sexuality.
Secondarily, however, Butterfield drops in a rather heart-stopping sub-plot focused on a tragic failure of modern technology that strikes both Nick and Carter where their hearts are. Like the moral and social failure of Hollywood, this subplot reminds us that, for all their wealth and their shiny toys, society continues to fail Nick and Carter, and by extension every non-straight, non-white person.
The only thing of real value that Nick and Carter have is their love, which is as unshakeable now as it was at the beginning of their saga. That is the continuity that keeps me reading. The rest is all smoke and mirrors.
December 24, 2019
I love this series. My only complaint was the sudden way it ended. I usually like to have a few of these to read back to back but I decided not to wait. Wish I had. Can't wait until the next book comes out.
December 16, 2019
epub via Patreon, 174 pages
It's easy for a long-running series to become formulaic and predictable (as seen in so may on-going television series, which of course has a reset button so effectively not a lot changes from week to week). Fortunately Frank W Butterfield has so far avoided that and after a run of 32 (plus shorts) books in The Nick Williams Mysteries has rebooted the books to give Carter equal billing in the Nick and Carter Adventures...
In this second book the pair return home to San Francisco with the intention of pausing their busy globe-trotting. Carter has his publishing house to occupy his time but Nick finds himself in need of something to do. A couple of accidents (one of them more heart-stopping than the other) early on answers that problem and he embarks upon a new career. How successful that is will become clear in time... Meanwhile Carter becomes a target.
As engaging as ever these books cleverly manage to deliver history lessons wrapped up in the Mystery/Adventure format (but not in a preachy, school way). If I have one complaint it's that while the plot is resolved satisfactorily we are left dangling with a cliffhanger ending - or at least a tease for the next book in the sequence! However, these is a minor cavil.
It's easy for a long-running series to become formulaic and predictable (as seen in so may on-going television series, which of course has a reset button so effectively not a lot changes from week to week). Fortunately Frank W Butterfield has so far avoided that and after a run of 32 (plus shorts) books in The Nick Williams Mysteries has rebooted the books to give Carter equal billing in the Nick and Carter Adventures...
In this second book the pair return home to San Francisco with the intention of pausing their busy globe-trotting. Carter has his publishing house to occupy his time but Nick finds himself in need of something to do. A couple of accidents (one of them more heart-stopping than the other) early on answers that problem and he embarks upon a new career. How successful that is will become clear in time... Meanwhile Carter becomes a target.
As engaging as ever these books cleverly manage to deliver history lessons wrapped up in the Mystery/Adventure format (but not in a preachy, school way). If I have one complaint it's that while the plot is resolved satisfactorily we are left dangling with a cliffhanger ending - or at least a tease for the next book in the sequence! However, these is a minor cavil.
September 1, 2021
I get the feeling that the author has lost interest in these characters. The excitement and intrigue are missing. The characters themselves seem to be exhausted, as well. I've given this book only two stars because it wasn't a completed book. There wasn't an ending. The entire story was left up in the air at the end of the final chapter. If I had known that this was a two-part novel, I would have waited until the second part was published in order to read them together. BUT, the second part isn't available yet. Additionally, again, there were many missing small words (to, the, and, etc.) and wrong tenses of words used throughout the book. A better proofreader was needed.
December 15, 2019
Interesting
Really like these stories of Nick and Carter. Will definitely keep reading them. Would like to see a better job done of proof reading for grammatical mistakes.
Really like these stories of Nick and Carter. Will definitely keep reading them. Would like to see a better job done of proof reading for grammatical mistakes.
March 17, 2022
Similar but Not the Same
The storyline has the same characters we’ve come to know but the plot is a bit more gritty and rougher. Good writing, though not error free, it is well researched and defined. This book ends with most story threads resolved and one or two which lead into the next installment.
The storyline has the same characters we’ve come to know but the plot is a bit more gritty and rougher. Good writing, though not error free, it is well researched and defined. This book ends with most story threads resolved and one or two which lead into the next installment.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews