Sun Dog Memory

by Douglas Armstrong, Patrick Armstrong (Illustrator)

The girl is a dead ringer for his long-missing sister. And Jed Albright’s chance encounter with her outside a cowtown depot draws the railway mail clerk into a perilous web of lies, treachery, and vengeance. Soon, he’s a man on the run with a price on his head. Sun Dog Memory is the Depression era saga of a family at war with itself, twenty years after their boom and bust struggles ended bitterly on the vast Kansas plain. The question for Jed, can he outrun his past and a determined killer in a race on the rails from dust bowl Kansas to the steamy streets of New Orleans?

Genres: Historical Fiction

308 pages, Paperback

Published July 19, 2023

Reviews

[Dulcie Shoener · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doug Armstrong writes strongly and lovingly about tough life on the Kansas prairie. Jed Albright, the hero, is based on Armstrong’s own grandfather, but the storyline is richly imagined with events both tender and terrifying. Flashbacks from the 1930s to 20 years earlier move the story along, and a change of scene to New Orleans is sumptuously described. Jed’s courage and decency shine through, and the strong female characters made me feel welcome in this action-packed narrative.

[Book Concierge · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5***

From the book jacket: The girl is a dead ringer for his long-missing sister. And Jed Albright’s chance encounter with her outside a Cowtown depot draws the railway mail clerk into a perilous web of lies, treachery, and vengeance. Soon, he’s a man on the run with a price on his head.

My reactions
I was introduced to this work by my F2F book club; the author lives nearby and one of our members recommended this Depression-era saga. At heart it’s about a family of siblings who tried their best to make it on the Kansas plains but met with disaster. The oldest brother, Arthur, is a detective with the nascent FBI; Jed is a postal clerk on the railroad; Tim is still trying to work the homestead; their sister, Carrie, disappeared years ago and they’ve completely lost touch. Or have they?

Armstrong goes back and forth in time from 1930 to 1911. Times and conditions are tough in both timeframes, but we learn how the siblings came to the homestead and their efforts to make a go of it, and how their fate becomes intricately linked to that of the town’s wealthy railroad executives.

There’s a lot of intrigue here and the reader is just as clueless as Jed. I’m not sure that I ever figured out who was really behind all the treachery, and while I thought the family saga had a satisfactory resolution, the epilogue threw me for a loop.

It certainly held my attention, and I particularly liked the way Armstrong made the landscape and conditions (dust storms, blizzards, heat, etc.) part of the story. I also really liked Jed’s wife, Amanda, though she didn’t play a central role until half-way into the novel.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sun Dog Memory blends mystery, humor, history and quirky characters into a novel which is both a page-turner and a richly written work. The twists and turns of the plot keep you guessing, while the clever language immerses you in the characters and scenes of the Kansas prairie and New Orleans nightlife of the past. A thoroughly enjoyable read!