Red Grass River: An Epic Southern Gothic of Criminal Folk Heroes, Blood Feuds, and Family Destiny

by James Carlos Blake

James Carlos Blake is a masterful chronicler of the restless, outcast, the lawless, and the lonelyheart. His previous novel, In the Rogue Blood, was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. Now he has written a powerful and rousing historical saga of family loyalties, blood feuds, and betrayed friendships; of bank robberies and bootlegging; and of a passionate love as wild at heart as the Everglades. It is the story of sworn John Ashley, a criminal and folk hero, the brightest star in a family destined to become the most notorious in south Florida; and Bobby Baker, a lawman born of lawmen, a violent, hard-hearted man driven by the searing memory of past affronts and the enduring hatreds the engendered. Ashley and Maker will clash many times over many decades. And as the twentieth century encroaches on their world—and the wildlands give grudging way to the rising boomtown of Miami—a feral, sensual mating will place one man in gravest peril...while his adversary contrives a dark, personal vengeance that could leave countless lives—his own included—in ruin.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Roman, Westerns, Noir, Crime

388 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

James Carlos Blake was an American writer of novels, novellas, short stories, and essays. His work has received extensive critical favor and several notable awards. He has been called “one of the greatest chroniclers of the mythical American outlaw life” as well as “one of the most original writers in America today and … certainly one of the bravest.” He was a recipient of the University of South Florida's Distinguished Humanities Alumnus Award and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.

Reviews

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A swamp noir epic spanning over a decade, Red Grass River begins with soon-to-be-famous bandit John Ashley navigating the Florida everglades (what Blake calls “the Devil’s Garden”) in search of a local Seminole man named DeSoto Tiger. Ashley only has trading with Tiger on his mind, but soon things turn violent, setting the tone for this bloody epic. Over the following years banks are robbed, rum is ran, and throats are cut aplenty. This novel kind of occupied the space and time between the traditional western era featuring criminals like John Wesley Hardin and Billy the Kid and the prohibition era with guys like Bugsy Siegel or Meyer Lansky. This novel setting, combined with Blake’s no-nonsense prose and epic scope really made for great reading. It’s one of those books where I only reserve the fifth star because I don’t know yet if Blake can do better.

The book specifically concerns the historically famous Ashley gang, led by patriarch Old Joe and filled out by his five sons and myriad others including Hanford Mobley, Ray Lynn, Roy Matthews, et al. Also holding her own in capacity for violent outlawry is John’s wonderfully-named girlfriend Laura Upthegrove. Early in the book John forms a rivalry with Bob Baker, a gruff and ruthless sheriff. The war between the Bakers and the Ashleys carries on for most of the book and results in a ton of violent mayhem. It’s too easy to compare Blake to Cormac McCarthy in terms of prose stylings and blood-soaked pages but it’s definitely apt. I don’t think Blake rises quite to the heights of brutal poetry and apocalyptic violence as readers encounter in the likes of Blood Meridian but he’s no rote ripoff artist either.

I think a big part of my enjoyment of this book had to do with my total lack of knowledge of the Ashley Gang. I’ve read a lot about this era’s gangsters but they completely passed me by, probably due to the fact they were plying their rough trade in the Floridian swamps and not the big cities of Chicago or New York. That said, these dudes and dudettes certainly can hang with the best of them. The bodies pile higher with every page and you can smell the cordite and blood mist hanging in the air after the many tense gunfights and outright murders. I also enjoyed being immersed deep in the surroundings. You can smell the marine rot, walk amongst the sawgrass and lounge in the hammock trees with the characters with ease.

I can’t wait to get ahold of more of Blake’s stuff, especially his book about Bloody Bill Anderson. If I liked this book this much going into it with no knowledge or even a terrible lot of interest in the setting or historical context I can’t see me not liking a book the author’s written about one of the civil war’s most famous and ruthless killers! So: if you have any interest in the prohibition era, Florida crime history, or even just two-fisted tales of murder, mayhem and sex you would do well to check this book out. There’s not a lot of humor or lightness in it but these people’s lives were hardly a goofy jaunt through easy pastures and Blake does them a service by presenting them as both larger-than-life folk heroes and fallible, violent human beings.

[WJEP · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know all the rules of historical fiction, but I assume it's supposed to be educational. Here are a few things I learned:
1. How the death of one worthless Injun caused a decade-long spree of rumrunnin, bankrobbin, and hijackin.
2. Various kinds of damage a bullet can do when it enters your skull.
3. How not to go looney while isolated in a 7-by-9 prison cell for 2 years.
4. The Model T is a lousy getaway car:

"Once more he adjusted the spark and this time reset the throttle too and then again spun the crank. Nothing. He felt like shooting the car for a traitor."

The story is told by two different 3rd-person voices. One narrator contemporaneously follows the Ashley crime clan. The other is an oldtimer reminiscing about it:

"All thats a fact. The rest is just stories. A lot of guessing and supposing and probly."

This book was too epic for me -- kind of like watching Godfather I-III in one sitting. I would have preferred if Blake made it a trilogy and called them Peckerwoods I-III.

[JustSomeGuy · Rating 3 out of 5]

My upstate NY library had to go out and get this book from Oklahoma State University to fulfill my request, and even though it was an older book, I could tell from the catalog card still within its pages, it looked as though only 3 other people had read it in all that time. I was surprised more people had not taken the opportunity to hear a yarn about a blood feud that spans decades with the Florida Everglades as its backdrop. I didn't find the book to be a masterpiece as some reviews glorified it as, but the author did an admirable job incorporating the history of South Florida while turning the Everglades into his most memorable character in a novel full of them. The tale of the rum-running Ashleys and the lawmen Bakers was told through the direct conflict between John Ashley and Bobby Baker, one that began in their youth, with the former stealing the girl of the latter at a dance, and ended with an immeasurable amount of bloodshed. I say immeasurable, but it would be more accurate to admit I stopped counting, as one death just began to pile on another. The repetitive cycle of bank robberies, arrests and prison escapes became tiresome, as did the teases of the showdown that would never materialize between the two until the very end, and by then, it felt anti-climactic. I fought off fatigue for the better part of the book, wanting to know the result but tiring to hear how we finally got there. A wonderfully written, sometimes long-winded, novel that too often tested my patience as a reader in order to fully enjoy it. Carve out 100 pages, 20 bankrobberies and a dozen characters, and I would have appreciated this work even more.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of this story is quite good. Blake's sparse language and dialog give the novel authenticity as well as an attempt at mythos. The attempt of the latter, however, falls a bit short. The characters are simply too sordid, their near feral instincts overwhelming any larger background other than a group of people overly fascinated with erections and penis measurements. That certainly isn't Blake talking, but it is his characters. And they just don't get much above that level. Blake, in other works, writes effectively about lumpens. But he doesn't quite pull it off here. Why? I'm convinced it's the backdrop, the Florida Everglades. When Blake describes the borderlands, deserts, and urban desolation of Texas and Mexico, he is at his best. The characters from those stories emerge from their backgrounds, they grow from their elements. And they are mythic--mostly. But the Everglades is just as dank, humid, sludgy, and mire-like as this story of early twentieth century Florida. Blake knows the area, understands its atmosphere. But it is a dreary mess. The Ashleys, their friends, and their enemies can't grow beyond what they are: near animal creatures whose appetites are base; they're barely human. Blake does want us to develop sympathy for John Ashley. But at the end, it's impossible. He dies. Who cares?

[Gavin Armour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neben dem Self-made-Millionär, dessen Aufstieg vom Tellerwäscher in den Geldadel reicht, dem einsamen Kämpfer, dem Loner, der die Prärien durchstreift, oder dem Cowboy, der mit seiner Tatkraft half, das Land aufzubauen, sind der Gangster, der sich über Recht und Gesetz hinwegsetzend nimmt, was er haben will und damit sogar den Status eines Volkshelden erringen kann, und nicht zuletzt die Familie als Keimzelle der Gesellschaft und damit des Staates weitere Topoi des großen amerikanischen Narrativ. Von James Fenimore Cooper über William Faulkner bis zu John Steinbeck oder Tennessee Williams kann man die Erzählung dieser Keimzelle verfolgen, kann verfolgen, wie sie einerseits das Land erschuf, das Amerika in seiner eigenen Idealvorstellung heute ist, aber auch, welche Verwerfungen und Verwirrungen in diesen Keimzellen immer schon entstanden und wirkten. Der Patriarch, der herrscht, meist weit über seinen Zenit hinaus, die Ehefrauen, die ihre Männer uneingeschränkt unterstützen, obwohl sie deren Fehler und Eigenheiten durchschauen und nicht immer billigen, die Söhne, die aufgebehren oder ihrer eigenen Wege gehen müssen, die Töchter, die sich durchsetzen und eine eigene Form der Emanzipation erringen – es sind fast schon Stereotype, die uns in der amerikanischen Literatur ebenso begegnen, wie in den Filmen von John Ford, William Wyler, Elia Kazan, Francis Ford Coppola oder, in abgewandelter Form, bei Woody Allen und Todd Solondz.

In einigen Fällen kommen die Familien- und das Gangsterdrama zur Deckung, wie es Coppola in THE GODFATHER (1972) exemplarisch anhand der Familie Corleone durchexerziert hatte, aber auch in der Mythologie solcher Familienverbände wie den Bakers, angeführt von der Matriarchin ‚Ma‘ Baker, oder dem Clan der James- und der Younger-Brüder, deren Anführer Jesse James ins Pantheon jener Verbrecher aufgestiegen ist, die heute noch als Volkshelden betrachtet und gelegentlich verehrt werden. Man kann lange und herrlich darüber philosophieren, ob in der amerikanischen Erzählung Familie und Gangstertum deshalb so häufig übereinkommen, weil beide erst in Personalunion dieses gewaltige Land bezwingen und dann beherrschen konnten. Vielleicht brauchte es diese skrupellosen Figuren, die den Kapitalismus auf ganz eigene Art – auch das exerziert Coppola in seiner Verfilmung von Mario Puzos Bestseller über eine italienische Aufsteigerfamilie im Mafiamilieu hervorragend durch – interpretierten, um zu schaffen, was heutzutage vor allem weiße Männer für sich als Naturzustand reklamieren: Die uneingeschränkte Herrschaft über Kapitalströme, Gesetze, Werte und Normen. Vielleicht brauchte es die Härte und die Brutalität, damit man eine letztlich funktionierende Gesellschaft in einem Land aufbauen konnte, dessen schiere Ausmaße und dessen oft lebensfeindlichen geographischen Räume – zuvor von Eingeborenen bewohnt, die ganz anders in und mit diesem Land lebten – eine einheitliche Staatsform im Grunde ausschließen. Und vielleicht brauchte es diesen weiteren Topos der amerikanischen Erzählung, um dies zu schaffen – den der Gewalt.

James Carlos Blake bringt in seinem Epos RED GRASS RIVER exakt diese drei Topoi zusammen: Die Familie, das Leben als Outlaw und die Gewalt, als konstituierendes Element dieser Gesellschaft, fließen in seinem Roman in eins. Angesiedelt zwischen den Jahren 1912 und 1924 berichtet er vom Aufstieg und Fall der Familie Ashley, deren Patriarch Joe Ashley, ein Schnapsbrenner und Jäger, ist und dessen Söhne John, Bob, Frank, Ed und Bill ins Familiengeschäft einsteigen und mit ihren je eigenen Fähigkeiten dazu beitragen, daß sie lange Zeit den Alkoholhandel und schließlich den Schmuggel während der Prohibition ab 1919 im südlichen Florida beherrschten. Basierend auf wohl wahren Begebenheiten, die er allerdings nach eigener Aussage frei verfügend literarisch bearbeitet hat, erzählt Blake also davon, wie vor allem John Ashley und sein Bruder Bob sich rücksichtslos und brutal gegen alles und alle durchsetzen, das und die sich ihnen in den Weg stellen. Wir erfahren, wie sie sich mit Huren vergnügen und doch auch die Frauen finden, die sich ihnen anschließen und ihr wildes Leben teilen. Wir lernen ihre Freunde und vor allem ihre Feinde kennen, allen voran den Sheriff Bob Baker, der sich dem Verbrecherclan zwar entschieden entgegenstellt, dabei aber Maß und Mitte verliert und in seinen Methoden kaum mehr von den Ashley-Brüdern zu unterscheiden ist.

In manchmal nahezu poetischen Beschreibungen werden dem Leser die Everglades, ein unvergleichbar großes Sumpfgebiet, das sich einst durch den gesamten Staat Florida zog, und seine ganz eigene Schönheit nahegebracht, kann man die subtropische Hitze fast spüren, steigt die Feuchtigkeit aus den Seiten des Buchs auf. Es gelingen Blake oft wirklich eindringliche Bilder, manchmal nur Skizzen des harten aber auch freien Lebens in diesem Gebiet, das vor allem Indianer und Menschen wie die Ashleys bewohnen. Doch dann wechselt Blake immer wieder in den Stil eines rein deskriptiven Berichts, kühl, sachlich und distanziert. Er lässt den Leser durchaus an den Gefühlen, Einsichten und Entwicklungen der Figuren teilhaben, Figuren, die oft ambivalent und dem Leser dadurch auch fremd bleiben. Besonders nah gehen dabei die expliziten Beschreibungen der Gewalt, die das Leben all dieser Menschen – Männer, muß man wohl sagen, da die Frauen hier bis auf sehr wenige Ausnahmen zumeist Randfiguren bleiben – bestimmt.

Es ist allerdings dies auch der schwerst wiegende Kritikpunkt an Blakes Roman. Gewalt eben als konstituierendes Element der amerikanischen Gesellschaft ist vielfach analysiert, durchdacht, beschrieben und erklärt worden, sowohl wissenschaftlich und essayistisch – man denke dabei bspw. an Richard Slotkins bahnbrechende Studien REGENERATION THROUGH VIOLENCE: THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER 1600-1860 (1973), THE FATAL ENVIRONMENT: THE MYTH OF THE FRONTIER IN THE AGE OF INDUSTRIALIZATION 1800-1890 (1985) sowie GUNFIGHTER NATION: THE MYTH OF THE FRONTIER IIN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICA (1992) – als auch künstlerisch in Literatur und mehr noch im Film. Martin Scorsese sei hier stellvertretend als Groß-Analytiker auf diesem Gebiet genannt. Will man also all diesen Analysen und Werken etwas hinzufügen, muß man sich etwas wirklich Gelungenes einfallen lassen, und das tut Blake leider nicht. Es gelingen ihm eindringliche Szenen exzessiver Gewalt, doch erstarrt das Ganze irgendwann in der Beschreibung des immer Gleichen. Er reiht Bluttat an Bluttat, Prügel an Prügel, Schießerei an Schießerei, doch erzählt uns das in seiner schieren Masse nichts, was wir nicht durch andere Werke bereits wüssten: Gewalt erzeugt Gegengewalt, Rache ist ein süßes Gift, das immer weitere toxische Entladungen nach sich zieht, zurück bleiben immer nur Leidende, Trauernde, die die Toten beweinen.

Blake variiert bekannte Versatzstücke und Narrative, er nutzt Figuren, die bei aller Ambivalenz so oder ähnlich schon hundertfach in allen möglichen Werken aufgetreten sind, und selbst die Ambivalenz ist dem engagierten Leser längst bekannt. Es ist der Verbrecher als Volksheld, zumindest geduldeter Teil einer sich erst langsam findenden Gesellschaft, die in Vielem noch archaischen Mustern folgt, in der die Gesetzeshüter sich nur durch den Stern an ihrer Brust von denen unterscheiden, die sie jagen. Die Prärie des Westens wurde ersetzt durch die Wildnis der Everglades; die Indianer sind marginalisiert, insofern entspricht die Erzählung eher den Gangsterepen der 1920er Jahre um AL Capone und die Mafia, als einem Western von John Ford, in dem Indianer noch als Teil der bedrohlichen Natur dargestellt wurden; die Familie Ashley wiederum erinnert in ihrem Habitus durchaus noch an die frühen Siedler, so ungehobelt und ungehemmt, wie sich gerade die Söhne John und Bob gebärden. In den besseren Momenten des Romans erinnert diese Familie dann allerdings auch an den ‚Snopes‘-Clan aus Faulkners gleichnamiger Trilogie.

Bei aller der Kritik sei jedoch auch erwähnt, daß es Blake durchaus gelingt, den Rassismus dieser Gesellschaft, ihre Bigotterie, die moralische Verkommenheit darzustellen, ja, fühlbar zu machen. Das tut er unaufdringlich, oft in Nebensätzen, die einfach beschreiben, ohne allzu viel zu erklären. Auch die Rolle der Frau als unterstützendes, ja: stützendes, Element dieser Gesellschaft im Werden, prae Rechtsstaat, in der eine nie näher in Erscheinung tretende Obrigkeit sich genau jener Männer bedient, die sie auszuschließen, zu marginalisieren und letztlich zu vernichten versucht, reflektiert Blake. Frauen sind hier entweder Huren (wenn auch etwas zu oft solche mit Herz) oder treue Ehefrauen, die die Eigenarten ihrer Männer nicht immer billigen, manchmal hintertreiben, aber nie wirklich in Frage stellen. Auch die langsam aufkommende Moderne, oft in den immer besser, immer schneller werdenden Autos symbolisiert, aber auch spürbar durch die immer mehr um sich greifenden Unterhaltungsetablissements, vom Kino, über Nachtclubs bis zu Magazinen und Zeitschriften, erfasst Blake gekonnt und vermag dem Leser so zu vermitteln, wieso Männer wie die Ashleys immer anachronistischer wirkten, bis sie sich schlicht überlebt hatten. Wir können nachvollziehen, weshalb aus einer Gesellschaft, gegründet auf Gewalt, auf das Recht des Stärkeren, langsam eine rechtsstaatliche Prinzipien Achtende wurde. Wir verstehen aber auch, wie stark diese Entwicklung gerade in den USA mit dem Kapitalismus und seiner Entwicklung zusammenhing. Solange die Gewalt mehr nutzt als stört, solange sie dazu beiträgt, sich mißliebiger Subjekte – oder gar Bevölkerungsgruppen, wie den Indianern – zu entledigen, wird sie geduldet, gar gefördert, sobald sie der weiteren Entfaltung im Wege steht, wird sie geächtet.

James Carlos Blake ist da ein durchaus packender Roman gelungen, dem ein wenig mehr Straffung gut getan hätte. Etwas weniger Gewalt, etwas mehr Figurenzeichnung, etwas weniger Machismo, etwas mehr Psychologie hätten dem Werk ganz sicher mehr Tiefe und Relevanz verliehen. Doch indem Blake gelegentlich zwischen den einzelnen, mit Daten überschriebenen Kapiteln den ‚Liars Club‘ sprechen lässt, reflektiert er die amerikanische Erzählung selbst und ihre Entstehungsgeschichte. Der ‚Liars Club‘, das ist eine anonyme Stimme, die sich aus all den alten Kerlen zusammensetzt, die an Sonntagnachmittagen vor dem lokalen Drugstore zusammen sitzen, ein Eis lutschen, ein Bier nuckeln, und sich Geschichten von „damals“ erzählen. Geschichten aus der guten, alten, aus der wilden Zeit. Es sind die Stimmen, die aus Erlebnissen und Geschehnissen Legenden, Sagen, ja Mythen, machen und sich nicht um Wahrheitsgehalt oder Übertreibung scheren. Blake reiht sich – nicht zuletzt durch das Bekenntnis, sich der historischen Fakten äußerst frei bedient zu haben und auch den Zusatz im Originaltitel A LEGEND – in die Reihen des ‚Liars Club‘ ein. Und dadurch trägt er durchaus seinen Teil zur großen amerikanischen Erzählung bei.

[Léa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Red Grass River est une épopée fantastique au milieu de la Floride des années 20.

L'histoire de ce roman retrace avec brio la vie de John Ashley, célèbre bandit, braqueur de banque, bootlegger et hors-la-loi américain. Si celui-ci est surnommé le roi des Everglades, ce n'est pas pour rien. La vie de John Ashley et celle de sa famille sont inextricablement mêlées à cette région. C'est dans ces marécages que John va grandir, commettre son premier méfait, vendre l'alcool distillé par son père Joe mais aussi vivre et aimer. Les Everglades sont un personnage à part entière de ce roman. Dangereuses, inquiétantes, mortelles, mystérieuses... Mais aussi, belles, protectrices et pleines de vie pour qui les connait... elles donnent un cadre hors du commun à cette histoire.

Ce sont la modernisation des Everglades, l'urbanisation, l'augmentation de la population qui vont entraîner des changements radicaux dans la vie du gang Ashley. Cette famille, connue de tout Palm Beach, amie avec le shérif Baker père, va connaître plusieurs revirements de situation qui vont entraîner sa chute. Je ne vous en dirai pas plus (il se passe beaucoup de choses dans ce roman) sinon que James Carlos Blake a parfaitement revisité l'histoire du gang Ashley en mêlant deux voix, une première raconte l'épopée de John Ashley tandis qu'une deuxième tente de ce souvenir de ce passer lointain.



Alors si comme moi, vous aimez les histoires de bandits, les westerns, les romans noirs, Boardwalk Empire, la crasse de True Detective saison 1, les histoires d'amour et de famille, les méchants attachants, les "gentils" plutôt méchants, le film Il était une fois en Amérique, les braquages de banque, Bonnie & Clyde, la Floride et ses crocodiles, alors vous risquez de grandement apprécier ce roman !

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am grateful to Goodreads for enabling me to find James Carlos Blake. I've loved all his novels. Red Grass River, like the others I've read, is an adventure, a romance, a historical lesson, and a work of literary beauty. No gimmicks required -- just excellent story-telling delivered in masculine style.

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Red Grass River is a competent fictionalization of the Ashley Gang and their outlawry in South Florida. What it lacks in economy and introspection it more than makes up for in spiffy dialogue, remarkable characterization of the Lake Okeechobee area, and a number of well-ordered set pieces that move the story right along.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite what some reviewers claim, James Carlos Blake is not Cormac McCarthy. He writes in a wholly different vein. And yet, he does tell an engaging tale. The tale of outlaws and lawmen in South Florida at the early stages of the 20th Century is detailed and honest. Blake resists the urge to paint a simple picture. Instead, he shows us what both the men and the times were really like. The story is full of violence, but hardly in a gratuitous fashion. It is, in the end, a truly American story.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

"They say it's hardly another place in the world where you can look farther & see less. And all of it green of one shade or another except at sunrise & in the dying light of day when that great grass river goes so red it looks like it's on fire or stained with blood."

"Now the dry season was on them & the mosquitoes were scant. The night turned cool & clear & the stars did brighten. The dark sky seemed clear & the stars did brighten. The dark sky seemed powdered with stellar swirls pale as talc. The moon in it's fullness That month hung like a peeled blood orange. Frogs rang in the creeks & sloughs, owls hooted in the high pine. Sometimes came the deep rumbling growls & guttural barks of gators & now & then the high shriek of a panther near or far."

James Carlos Blake has been compared to Cormac McCarthy & in this, my second reading of one of Blake's books, it's not a comparison that reflects unfavorably on either writer.
After a slow start, this book turned into a page-turner for me & i thoroughly enjoyed & recommend this fine example of 'Swamp Noir' to all readers.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s clear early on that this is a book about nothing but bad people, leading bad lives, doing bad deeds. No redeeming qualities - none. So accept this or stay away from Red Grass River.
The main character is John Ashley, who, along with his daddy and brothers and friends comprise a gang of bootlegging, bank-robbing, rum-smuggling, jail-breaking thugs who wreak havoc throughout south Florida circa 1914-1924. It’s the Everglades mafia is what it is. And the Ashley gang has had a long running blood feud with the the Bakers, the local law enforcement family, particularly Bobby Baker. The few women we glimpse are either whores or wives or mothers blasting shotguns to shoo away enemies, that is until lady outlaw Laura Upthegrove comes into John’s life so he can have true love. This is a sweaty, swampy violent tale with great writing and loads of action and strong characters.

[Wordsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always keep a mental running tally of my own Top 25 Best Books Ever-This one, "Red River Grass," by James Carlos Blake, ALWAYS stays in the mix. A brilliantly written book capturing a slice of life I was surprised to find fascinating. Gangsters? In the twenties? Hiding out and seeking refuge in their natural habitat, the untamed Florida Everglades? You betcha. Mr. Blake is THAT good. That's why he wins the awards. If you come across this book, don't be a fence sitter, do yourself a favor and dig in. This is one good book.

[Michael Schrader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hat nicht ganz die Intensität von "Das Böse im Blut", ist aber immer noch eine klasse Gangstergeschichte aus der Prohibitionszeit, die sich zu lesen lohnt. Lässt an Dennis Lehanes Reihe um Joe Coughlin (Im Aufruhr jener Tage / In der Nacht / Am Ende einer Welt) denken.

[Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. A Land Remembered with moonshiners and bank robbers. Fiction, but character names and events are real. Excellent Read.

[Eugenerose4gmail.Com · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely action packed and very entertaining. I counted 27 violent deaths vividly described. Not sweetness and light.

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a word, wow!

[Mike Mazursky · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Greatest Chronicler of the Mythical American Outlaw Life

I first read Red Grass River years ago before my own foray into the outlaw life and the inevitable prison bid that goes along with it. The prose was so beautiful that I found myself rereading some of the passages just to savor the words, savor the poetry in them. In my opinion, James Carlos Blake is the greatest writer I've ever had the privilege of reading. He captures something innate about the human experience that no other writer does quite like him.

After my career as an itinerant hold-up man came to an end, and I was getting some much-needed R&R in the heart of the Negev Desert inside of Ela Prison, I had a friend of mine bring me a few of James Carlos Blake's books. They were my most prized possessions. I tried my damnedest to get Red Grass River also brought to me, but unfortunately, I was never able to. Years now after my release, I finally got around to rereading it.

It's been so long since I read it the first time that I forgot most of the plot, most of the story, the nuances, the prose, so it was almost like reading it for the first time. And it had me so engrossed at one point that I was cursing Bob Baker six ways from Sunday and yelling at John Ashley out loud while reading the book to kill the son of a bitch while he still had the chance..

If you're anything like me, this book will have you on the edge of your seat, chest heaving, especially in the end when, spoiler alert, John Ashley and Hanford Mobley are creeping through Bob Baker's house. And you know they're not gonna do it, but you just wish so badly they'd kill the bastard and be done with it. I had to remind myself that this is a novel. Who knows how it all really happened? Who knows what the truth really was? But I'll tell you what, I'll take James Carlos Blake's version of the truth over the actual truth any day of the week.

[Marcy Guenette · Rating 5 out of 5]

4-1/2 stars rounded up to 5 for reasons detailed below.

Rowdy, raunchy, coarse, irreverent, outlandish and fun, "Red Grass River" chronicles the adventures (or misadventures) of the Ashley Gang who operated out of moonshine camps hidden deep within the Everglade swamps of South Florida during the 1910's and 1920's. I wasn't at all familiar with the story prior to reading this book, but soon became enthralled with both the tale of lawlessness and the Everglades setting. In fact, the title "Red Grass River" comes from the appearance of the fresh water grass within the shallow river at sunset.

Ol' Papa Joe Ashley, family patriarch, had many sons, but the most famous was John Ashley who gained fame and notoriety as an American outlaw, bank robber, bootlegger, rum runner and occasional pirate. When things were slow in the moonshine business, he and his brothers turned to robbing banks. And then came prohibition and the 'shine' business boomed - that is until the Feds started busting up their stills and competition came south from the Chicago crime syndicate.

I loved this well-written, fast-paced, colorful and interesting tale throughout. My only criticism would be the need for some editorial corrections, at least in the EBook version through the Hoopla App, especially toward the end of the book - things that a spell check program wouldn't necessarily pick up. For instance, Ban instead of Ben, he instead of she, Hi instead of him or his, and I'm sure Laura Upthegrove didn't didn't hit anyone with a fish but rather with her fist. These little grammatical and capitalization errors began to add up. Just my two cents! Otherwise a great read.

[Freddie the Know-it-all · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Legend's a Kind of a Myth and a Myth's a Kind of a Lie

As History goes, this is a fine book of pure History. Finer than a froghair split four ways. It's told by a self-confessed liar, so there's more truth in it than there is in a polygraph chamber wall-papered with 400 years' worth of New York Times back-issues.

Pros

1. Great, apostrophe-free, Cracker Dialect. The Dialect is so good I'd go so far as to call it Dialectic even. This is the highlight of the book.
2. Lots of killings. Starts with the hero killing an Indian (only a Seminole, but it'll do).
3. BARs (Browning Automatic Rifles), you don't see many of them in books.
4. Swamp setting. Swampiest swamp in the world. Tons of good Swamp Lore you'll never see on paper anywhere.
5. Revengeance.
6. Re-revengeance.
7. Re-re-revengeance.
8. Canadian Whiskey. You'll have an un-slakeable thirst from start to finish.

Cons

1. Too much pining over Swamp Girls.
2. Too much sex.
3. Sheriffs aren't as crooked as we like 'em in these parts.
4. Happy Ending and Unhappy Ending. Both kinds.

If your dream is to be a Swamp Rat you'll find everything you need know right here in this here book. It's Swamp 101, 201, 301, ... Qualifiers and Dissertation. But you'll still have to pass the Gator-green Paper Bag Test.

Second Time Through ...

... I'm still pissed by all the dirty stuff. Too much of it.

[Ben Denison · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this was my next up from James Carlos Blake. He’s one of my favorite authors. I thought this book was good but not as good as the first three.

I love the way JCB tells a story, and just wasn’t as engrossed in this story as the others. Set in early 1900’s Florida/Texas and during prohibition, the Ashley family was one of Florida’s main bootleggers/crime family, but they were swamp rats and knew the land.

I made the mistake of watching a Discovery documentary on the same subject in January and the documentary portrayed the characters very differently. The boom had John Ashley as the rebel hero, and the lawman as a cross between incompetent and corrupt, while the documentary portrayed the opposite.

Overall a good book, but it did not hold My attention like his previous book and thus 2 months to finish it.

[Loretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haven't yet read a James Carlos Blake book I didn't like.
This was another really good one. I love an anti-hero, and nobody does it better than JCB. Our villain-hero John Ashely is dashing and dangerous and very much desired by the ladies - a running theme in most of the JCB books I've read, I'm not complaining, I'm swooning just as much as devil-may-care John Ashley's lady friends. I'm always compelled to do my own digging into the real history and lives of these Robin-Hood type characters, and for the most part, the real life violence and tragedy is sobering albeit no less intriguing.

[Maniissh Aroraa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two interesting characters - A blind girl who can dream of future events and a gang leader with amazing survival skills. It's a story of revenge between Ashley Gang (a family involved in making illegal alcohol & bootlegging) and Bob Baker (top cop) lasting over a decade. Grim, violent dark and based on true happening.

[Diogenes · Rating 2 out of 5]

The least enjoyable of Blake's many stark, violent, yet lyrical historical novels. The characters lack a third dimension, the dialog is repetitive and banal, the action erratic. Too long, too slow and too impassive.

[am. u · Rating 2 out of 5]

The poor man’s Cormac McCarthy who can’t write a female character. Extremely cringe worthy dialogue, very painful to read in parts. I’ve also gathered from this authors other books that he doesn’t like or respect women and is perhaps incestuous

[Jacoby · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best book I ever read with a bad ending.

[James Wiggins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not his best work

Not his best work. The kindle edition I purchased had one or two typos on nearly every page. Very frustrating.

[Michael L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

No Excuses for This

A good story ruined by hundreds of typos or just plain incorrect words. Never seen a problem like this before!

[Sam Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good historical fiction about rum running in the deep south. Very interesting times, and definitely does not glamorize the outlaw life.

[ginger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was rooting for the Ashleys so hard, man. Wrong, sure, but damn they're sympathetic.

The ending left me weirdly unsatisfied. It just didn't have as much oomph or impact as it should've.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the story. I tend to like tales with a bit of grit that don't end in kittens and rainbows. Kind of Bonnie and Close meet Hatfield and McCoy. I did get a bit tired of the constant battles.