Hangtown Creek - A Tale of the #California Gold Rush - First Paragraph / First Chapter / Tuesday Intros and #TeaserTuesday

    In this epic saga, John Rose Putnam paints a real and gritty picture of life in the Gold Rush era through the stories of each of his characters. A red-haired woman, her husband and son dead from cholera; two army veterans; a widowed man and three sons; three ruthless killers - all of them heading for California. Their quests make for a gripping tale.
    My reading tastes are eclectic, and a good book will keep me up late at night, reading when I should be asleep. That was definitely the case with Hangtown Creek. Putnam drew me into the world of gold panning, saloons, traveling by horseback, and much more with his excellent storytelling, filled with memorable characters, vivid description, and historical detail. I'll be reading more books by this talented author.   

Genre: Historical Fiction / Western
Length: 288 Pages
Amazon Link: Hangtown Creek
Author Website: John Rose Putnam

First Paragraph:
Fall 1846
    The earth, rutted deep from hundreds of wheels, churned raw by thousands of hooves, bore witness to the recent passing of a large immigrant party - all save one battered wagon that sat alone and untended, a loose pot clanking in the cold north wind. Here the trail followed the Truckee River, strangled by a long, dry summer into a trickle of shallow pools, and looking as pitiable as the forlorn wagon.
[Read the rest of Chapter One on John Putnam's website: HERE]

Teaser from 13% on my Kindle:
    All week she had watched them as they mined along the creek. The older one, gray showing in his hair and beard, reminded her of her father, but it was the other one, the tall one with the broad shoulders, who had brought her hope, the same slim hope she carried week after week.

Synopsis:
The majestic landscapes of Brett Harte's California unite with Larry McMurtry's epic old west realism in an explosion of love, lust, murder and betrayal that comes to a powerful climax along a beautiful stream, home to the largest strike in the mines, where a burning barn ignites the passion of a gold rush boomtown and, in one dark night of revenge, earns that stream the name it bears to this day—HANGTOWN CREEK.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

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Where or When - Teaser Tuesday

 

I'm about halfway through this book, and I'm enjoying Anita Shreve's writing. She spends a lot of time examining the thoughts and actions of her characters, which means the plot is definitely slow-moving. But it also means that I get to know and care about the characters and want (no, NEED) to find out how the story ends. I will admit, however, that I've read many books by this author, and although I'm enjoying this story, it is not one of my favorites. (Copyright date is 1993.) 

Here's my two-sentence snippet from 
Page 69 (paperback copy).

Teaser:
He wondered, while he ate his sandwich at the bar of the inn, if he would know Siân Richards if she walked in now, if when their eyes met she would know him. He'd been replaying various scenarios for days, imagining their first encounter after thirty-one years.

Genre: Literary Fiction
Length: 240 Pages
Amazon Link: Where or When
Other Books by This Author: Anita Shreve's Amazon Author Page

Synopsis from Goodreads:
What would you do if out of the blue, you received a letter from your first love? Siân Richards sees no reason why she can't write back to Charles Callahan. After all, it's been thirty years and they are both married with families. But when they decide to meet again, an innocent correspondence becomes a dangerous intimacy. Swept up in the past and consumed by an obsessive love, Charles and Siân risk everything to be together. A heart-wrenching, suspenseful story with an unforgettable conclusion, Where or When is also a 'thoughtful, beautifully written contemporary romance' (The Washington Post).

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)
• Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers
• Leave a comment on MizB's Teaser Tuesday post (HERE) and include your link so everyone can find your post.