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Incident at Twenty-Mile
A godforsaken town. A young, eager-to-please stranger carrying a homemade shotgun and a staggering secret. And a madman escaped from the Territorial Prison at Laramie, cutting a swath of sadistic violence with two killers at his side. Now, for the people of Twenty-Mile-- the God-fearing and the godless, heroes, whores, lovers and a boy teetering on the edge of madness-- a siege is about to begin amidst a harrowing mountain storm. And when the killing, the thunder, and the terror are over, some will live, some will be buried, and the myth of the American frontier will never be the same...
343 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1998
7 people are currently reading
599 people want to read
About the author
Trevanian
48 books567 followersRodney William Whitaker was an American film scholar and writer who wrote several novels under the pen name Trevanian. Whitaker wrote in a wide variety of genres, achieved bestseller status, and published under several other names, as well, including Nicholas Seare, Beñat Le Cagot, and Edoard Moran. He published the nonfiction book The Language of Film under his own name.
Between 1972 and 1983, five of his novels sold more than a million copies each. He was described as "the only writer of airport paperbacks to be compared to Émile Zola, Ian Fleming, Edgar Allan Poe, and Geoffrey Chaucer." Whitaker adamantly avoided publicity for most of his life, his real name a closely held secret for many years. The 1980 reference book Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers listed his real name in its Trevanian entry.
Between 1972 and 1983, five of his novels sold more than a million copies each. He was described as "the only writer of airport paperbacks to be compared to Émile Zola, Ian Fleming, Edgar Allan Poe, and Geoffrey Chaucer." Whitaker adamantly avoided publicity for most of his life, his real name a closely held secret for many years. The 1980 reference book Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers listed his real name in its Trevanian entry.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
May 11, 2023
"There's an old Spanish proverb that says, "Beware the man who knows but one book.' And that's especially true if that one book is 'sacred.' The man-of-one-book will slit your throat without a moment's hesitation or an ounce of remorse, confident that he's done it in the service of all that's good in this world and rewarded in the next."
Beware, indeed, for that man is coming. He is a man who has "one favorite book that he reads over and over." A man who is determined to create his own army that will right society's wrongs. A man whose reign of terror began at age fourteen. "A man riven through with hate and malice. A man who means to get even...with everybody." A man who enjoys causing pain and suffering.
...my prison years are behind me. I'm out for good and the world better practice trembling!"
The man-of-one-book is one sick twist.
"Hell, boy, I am a Force of Nature! There's nothing I can't do!"
Now, we must meet the residents of Twenty-Mile, a town that exists merely to service the eating, drinking and whoring needs of the local silver mine.
"Twenty-Mile is a community of has-beens and never-wases. Misfits all."
Closer examination reveals that no one in town is quite what they seem. There are hidden agendas, old grudges and secret, burning desires. Before long, you start to get the feeling that these "innocent" townsfolk may just prove to be more than a match for the horror that is headed their way.
Oh, that sweet, sweet anticipation.
I rarely stumble upon a true can't-stop-turning-the-pages book, but the second half of this one was hard to put down.
Thank you, Lee, for bringing this one to my attention.
Beware, indeed, for that man is coming. He is a man who has "one favorite book that he reads over and over." A man who is determined to create his own army that will right society's wrongs. A man whose reign of terror began at age fourteen. "A man riven through with hate and malice. A man who means to get even...with everybody." A man who enjoys causing pain and suffering.
...my prison years are behind me. I'm out for good and the world better practice trembling!"
The man-of-one-book is one sick twist.
"Hell, boy, I am a Force of Nature! There's nothing I can't do!"
Now, we must meet the residents of Twenty-Mile, a town that exists merely to service the eating, drinking and whoring needs of the local silver mine.
"Twenty-Mile is a community of has-beens and never-wases. Misfits all."
Closer examination reveals that no one in town is quite what they seem. There are hidden agendas, old grudges and secret, burning desires. Before long, you start to get the feeling that these "innocent" townsfolk may just prove to be more than a match for the horror that is headed their way.
Oh, that sweet, sweet anticipation.
I rarely stumble upon a true can't-stop-turning-the-pages book, but the second half of this one was hard to put down.
Thank you, Lee, for bringing this one to my attention.
August 16, 2010
It's difficult to know just how to classify this book at first glance. Trevanian, pseudonym for a Rodnet Whitaker, former professor at the University of Texas, insists all his books are spoofs. But the book is clearly much more than just a send-up of the classic Western revenge novel.
The "bad guy," Lieder, resembles that Lecter creep from the movie. He escapes from the "moonberry" (nuthouse) section at a maximum-security prison by persuading the guard that he has undergone an intense religious conversion. His goal is to form a militia to fight off what he believes is an international conspiracy to people America with immigrants. Shades of black U.N. helicopters. He was the "baddest of the bad," a brilliant maniac who had maimed whole families in the cause of electing William Jennings Bryan — he never kills, to avoid the death penalty. He and his fellow escapees descend on Twenty-Mile to steal a silver shipment that passes through the town weekly — he doesn‘t realize it‘s in the form of ore — in order to subsidize his movement.
Twenty-Mile — so-called because it was twenty miles from a spot twenty miles away — is a dying town populated by a host of Western stereotypes. One prostitute is French, "a tall, lean, yellow-eyed black woman from New Orleans." Some of the language is clearly the author having a good time: "A susurrus [sic:] scurry of sliding scree drew his attention to three men climbing up the slope toward him." And one of the characters delights in telling everyone how the United States was imperialistic in its actions during the Spanish-American War. Clearly the author was not a fan of Theodore Roosevelt, noting the Rough Rider made sure there were plenty of photographers handy when he made his charge, then taking his whole company back to New York, where the real enemies, malaria, disease and bad water, couldn't follow.
An epilogue reveals the incident is based on a real event. Trevanian discovered the story almost by accident. He did a considerable amount of research, finally discovering most of the fine points in old newspapers of a neighboring town, Destiny. In fact, it's reading the details of what happened to the very real characters in the book that places the entire story in context. For example, we learn why the train returned almost immediately after dropping off the miners at Twenty-Mile, and why the town became completely deserted within a week after the events described in the book.
Trevanian has written a masterful re-creation of an extraordinary event in the history of the West that surpasses a Louis L'Amour novel.
The "bad guy," Lieder, resembles that Lecter creep from the movie. He escapes from the "moonberry" (nuthouse) section at a maximum-security prison by persuading the guard that he has undergone an intense religious conversion. His goal is to form a militia to fight off what he believes is an international conspiracy to people America with immigrants. Shades of black U.N. helicopters. He was the "baddest of the bad," a brilliant maniac who had maimed whole families in the cause of electing William Jennings Bryan — he never kills, to avoid the death penalty. He and his fellow escapees descend on Twenty-Mile to steal a silver shipment that passes through the town weekly — he doesn‘t realize it‘s in the form of ore — in order to subsidize his movement.
Twenty-Mile — so-called because it was twenty miles from a spot twenty miles away — is a dying town populated by a host of Western stereotypes. One prostitute is French, "a tall, lean, yellow-eyed black woman from New Orleans." Some of the language is clearly the author having a good time: "A susurrus [sic:] scurry of sliding scree drew his attention to three men climbing up the slope toward him." And one of the characters delights in telling everyone how the United States was imperialistic in its actions during the Spanish-American War. Clearly the author was not a fan of Theodore Roosevelt, noting the Rough Rider made sure there were plenty of photographers handy when he made his charge, then taking his whole company back to New York, where the real enemies, malaria, disease and bad water, couldn't follow.
An epilogue reveals the incident is based on a real event. Trevanian discovered the story almost by accident. He did a considerable amount of research, finally discovering most of the fine points in old newspapers of a neighboring town, Destiny. In fact, it's reading the details of what happened to the very real characters in the book that places the entire story in context. For example, we learn why the train returned almost immediately after dropping off the miners at Twenty-Mile, and why the town became completely deserted within a week after the events described in the book.
Trevanian has written a masterful re-creation of an extraordinary event in the history of the West that surpasses a Louis L'Amour novel.
October 25, 2017
Excellent and unique western action. Lots of turns in the story and a moving epilogue.
June 4, 2025
Did not finish...
Did not like...
A plodding re-invention of the great American Western Novel, dull, unfunny, ugly when it was trying to be amusing... Ugh!
The first 120 pages almost finished me off... wish I could take back the time I spent on this.
The parody is not funny... the hero is not interesting... the villain is not sinister...
And Twenty-mile is a town that deserved to die... at least based on the first 120 pages of this book.
The author, Trevanian (Real name: Rodney William Whitaker, a university cinema professor), was a bestselling writer in his day. His most famous novel was one of his earliest hits, The Eiger Sanction (1972), which was also a popular movie starring and directed by Clint Eastwood. Incident at Twenty-mile was one of his later books, published in 1998. His greatest work of fiction was probably himself. Trevanian kept his true identity a secret for much of his career. His biographies suggested he was a European living in the Basque region of France.
I had heard he was a bit of a literary writer and since I am always in search of some well-constructed prose I thought I would give him a try... and since I live in the West and love ghost towns I thought I had a match with this one... I was wrong. Some readers love his stuff but I absolutely found his writing style to be shopworn, trite, and exceedingly dull.
Did not like...
A plodding re-invention of the great American Western Novel, dull, unfunny, ugly when it was trying to be amusing... Ugh!
The first 120 pages almost finished me off... wish I could take back the time I spent on this.
The parody is not funny... the hero is not interesting... the villain is not sinister...
And Twenty-mile is a town that deserved to die... at least based on the first 120 pages of this book.
The author, Trevanian (Real name: Rodney William Whitaker, a university cinema professor), was a bestselling writer in his day. His most famous novel was one of his earliest hits, The Eiger Sanction (1972), which was also a popular movie starring and directed by Clint Eastwood. Incident at Twenty-mile was one of his later books, published in 1998. His greatest work of fiction was probably himself. Trevanian kept his true identity a secret for much of his career. His biographies suggested he was a European living in the Basque region of France.
I had heard he was a bit of a literary writer and since I am always in search of some well-constructed prose I thought I would give him a try... and since I live in the West and love ghost towns I thought I had a match with this one... I was wrong. Some readers love his stuff but I absolutely found his writing style to be shopworn, trite, and exceedingly dull.
January 31, 2023
Az önce Trevanian'dan 4. kitabımı da bitirdim. Yirminci Mil okuduğum diğer 3 kitaptan çok farklı. Amerika'da altın çılgınlığının yaşandığı, pek çok insanın yolunu batıya çevirdiği zamanlarda, tam olarak 1898 yılında, Methew Dubçek adında bir genç eski şaşalı günlerini çoktan geride bırakmış olan Yirminci Mil kasabasına gelir. Kasaba eskiden parlak günler görmüş geçirmiştir ama etraftaki madenlerin bir bir kapanmasıyla terk edilmeye yüz tutmuştur. Kasabada da zaten bir avuç insan yaşamaktadır ve kasabanın var olma sebebi yakındaki bir gümüş madeninden, ihtiyaçlarını gidermek için, haftada bir trenle kasabaya gelen bir grup madencidir. Dolayısıyla kasabanın dış dünyayla tek bağlantısı da demir yoludur. Mathew'dan sonra kasabaya üç yabancı daha gelir. Gelenlerin kendi hikayeleri vardır, kasabadakilerin de hikayeleri yabana atılacak cinsten değildir. Gelenler, kasabanın o güne dek tekdüze seyrinde akan kaderini değiştirecektir.
Yirminci Mil sürprizli bir roman ve okucuyu Amerikanın vahşi batı günlerine alıp götürüyor. Belgesel tadı alarak, merak içinde, bir solukta okudum Yirminci Mili. Sırada Katya'nın Yazı var.
Yirminci Mil sürprizli bir roman ve okucuyu Amerikanın vahşi batı günlerine alıp götürüyor. Belgesel tadı alarak, merak içinde, bir solukta okudum Yirminci Mili. Sırada Katya'nın Yazı var.
September 3, 2007
Trevanian
[http://www.trevanian.com]
Trevanian has always been one of my favorite authors and I have never been disappointed with his work, no matter what his style. This "western" is full of the suspense this writer is so adept at. It is every bit as exciting as all of Trevanian's espionage series but in a turn of the century setting. (I must confess I turned a buddy of mine, a L'amour fan, onto the book and he was a little taken back by the "adult" aspects, but as I reminded him, life was harsh on the frontier!)
[http://www.trevanian.com]
Trevanian has always been one of my favorite authors and I have never been disappointed with his work, no matter what his style. This "western" is full of the suspense this writer is so adept at. It is every bit as exciting as all of Trevanian's espionage series but in a turn of the century setting. (I must confess I turned a buddy of mine, a L'amour fan, onto the book and he was a little taken back by the "adult" aspects, but as I reminded him, life was harsh on the frontier!)
March 15, 2008
A wonderful book; would make a great movie. Based on a true event. The survivors became best friends. Only time in the "old west" that a Chinese man was treated decently
October 3, 2016
Избягал затворник пленява цяло градче: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/i...
Градчето Туенти-Мейл съществува само заради близката сребърна мина – всичко в него е подчинено на периодичното слизане от нея на отрудените миньори, готови да похарчат надниците си за дребни покупки, пиячка и жени. Броените му жители си знаят ролите и не си пречат, макар и да не питаят особена обич едни към други. Един ден в градчето пристига едно странно момче, което се представя с различни имена – къде с ласкателство, къде с нахалство той успява да се присламчи, да поеме неприятните дейности и да заживее що-годе спокойно, преследван от тайна в миналото си. До деня, в който в Туенти-Майл пристига избягал от затвора психопат, придружен от две послушни горили. Хитро и бързо те събират оръжията на жителите и ги взимат буквално в плен, докато се гаврят със съдържателя на публичния дом за назидание. Броени дни има до слизането на миньорите, а жителите трябва да оцелеят някак си. Но това не е лесно, когато в града вилнее луд, а плановете за съпротива изглеждат лишени от шанс.
издателство "Екслибрис"
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/i...
Градчето Туенти-Мейл съществува само заради близката сребърна мина – всичко в него е подчинено на периодичното слизане от нея на отрудените миньори, готови да похарчат надниците си за дребни покупки, пиячка и жени. Броените му жители си знаят ролите и не си пречат, макар и да не питаят особена обич едни към други. Един ден в градчето пристига едно странно момче, което се представя с различни имена – къде с ласкателство, къде с нахалство той успява да се присламчи, да поеме неприятните дейности и да заживее що-годе спокойно, преследван от тайна в миналото си. До деня, в който в Туенти-Майл пристига избягал от затвора психопат, придружен от две послушни горили. Хитро и бързо те събират оръжията на жителите и ги взимат буквално в плен, докато се гаврят със съдържателя на публичния дом за назидание. Броени дни има до слизането на миньорите, а жителите трябва да оцелеят някак си. Но това не е лесно, когато в града вилнее луд, а плановете за съпротива изглеждат лишени от шанс.
издателство "Екслибрис"
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/i...
March 14, 2012
This is a pretty vicious western from the man who gave us Shibumi. A sinister psychopath, who reminded me of Hannibal Lecter but is more of an ultra right wing racist patriot, escapes from jail along with a couple of easily lead but no less crazy inmates. Inspired by hate propaganda which he read in jail, the psychopath/racist patriot wants to eradicate all immigrants from America. Almost at the same time, a young man with a huge shotgun and a bunch of Ringo kid novels arrives in the small nearly abandoned American town of Twenty Mile. The young man imposes himself on the people in the small town (comprising three prostitutes, their pimp, the bartender, a cruel family of four who run an eating house, the department store owner and his beautiful daughter, two old homosexual men who run a livery, a barber and a preacher) through a mixture of charming and earnest behavior which helps him land a few odd jobs. But not everything is right with the young man who seems to be nursing the wounds of a violent childhood. The young man sleeps with the damp, sweaty, bovine and voluptuous daughter of the eating house owner but his heart lies with the beautiful and innocent daughter of the department store owner.
When the psychopath and henchmen arrive at Twenty Mile wreaking havoc it is up to the young man and a few of the residents to save the spiritually wounded people of the small town who cannot seem to stand up for themselves. Both the hero and villain in the novel have had terrible childhoods (we are damaged children, the psycho tells the young man whom he wants to join his army that would cleanse America of immigrants). Though they chose different life paths.
I really liked the way Trevanian described the history of the small town and introduced the characters one by one. Despite a whole lot of cliches and over the top dialog, the characters are well developed and I really enjoyed the descriptions of life in the small American town in the early Twentieth century (which involved working hard all day and then "sitting on the porch for half an hour or so, looking at the night sky above the foothills, enjoying the evening breezes, sometimes talking quietly, sharing vagrant wisps of thought that drifted into their minds") . And the food - slabs of rare stringy meat, boiled cabbage, freshly baked biscuits soaked in corn syrup followed by peaches and coffee.
Trevanian really tore into the Arabs in Shibumi and in Twenty Mile the psychopath is inspired by Arab invaders of the Congo when him and his followers take over the small town. The novel has a lot of tension but everything happens a little too fast. I would have liked to get a better look around the town and given the young man a little more time to settle in before the bad guys arrived. Twenty mile is like a John Steinbeck novel meets a Stephen King novel. It is entertaining but the overlapping of the two kinds of novels do not always work. But it is a quick read.
When the psychopath and henchmen arrive at Twenty Mile wreaking havoc it is up to the young man and a few of the residents to save the spiritually wounded people of the small town who cannot seem to stand up for themselves. Both the hero and villain in the novel have had terrible childhoods (we are damaged children, the psycho tells the young man whom he wants to join his army that would cleanse America of immigrants). Though they chose different life paths.
I really liked the way Trevanian described the history of the small town and introduced the characters one by one. Despite a whole lot of cliches and over the top dialog, the characters are well developed and I really enjoyed the descriptions of life in the small American town in the early Twentieth century (which involved working hard all day and then "sitting on the porch for half an hour or so, looking at the night sky above the foothills, enjoying the evening breezes, sometimes talking quietly, sharing vagrant wisps of thought that drifted into their minds") . And the food - slabs of rare stringy meat, boiled cabbage, freshly baked biscuits soaked in corn syrup followed by peaches and coffee.
Trevanian really tore into the Arabs in Shibumi and in Twenty Mile the psychopath is inspired by Arab invaders of the Congo when him and his followers take over the small town. The novel has a lot of tension but everything happens a little too fast. I would have liked to get a better look around the town and given the young man a little more time to settle in before the bad guys arrived. Twenty mile is like a John Steinbeck novel meets a Stephen King novel. It is entertaining but the overlapping of the two kinds of novels do not always work. But it is a quick read.
February 18, 2013
Shibumi was clearly his best but this was one of his later books by the author who wrote under the pseudonym Trevanian. His real name reportedly is Rodney W. Whitaker who was actually a film scholar but enjoyed some notoriety with his mystery writings as Trevanian. This one, a western however, didn't do it for me. A single threaded story with a predictable plot; only at the conclusion does it becomes apparent that the story is being recounted from the POV of a journalist writing 60 - 70 years after the incidents that comprise the story occurred. A clever conceit typical of Trevanian's writing. By comparison, the best contemporary western I've read is "Deadwood" by Pete Dexter which is the basis of HBO's series of the same name. Sadly Dexter (author of the award winning "Paris Trout) is understandably bitter about this as he was cutout of the script writing and presumably royalties from the series.
April 10, 2012
While traveling west back in '62, Trevanian was going through Wyoming. An hour or so outside Larimie, he remembered seeing an old map with a town named Destiny. Not much of the town left, he found an old man running the general store. With the stories he shared, and the notes he kept over the years *he himself wanting to write a book about what happened up in Twenty-Mile*, Trevanian put this visit on the back burner, then got the urge to write his only western about what happened at the end of the 19th century, in that silver mining region of Wyoming. Entertaining, well researched story with it's quirky characters, and the sadistic/insane madman, that escaped the Territorial Prison in Laramie....and somehow wound up in Twenty-Mile.
September 15, 2010
read in 2010, a kind of western. that said, i've read about 40 or so louis l'amour westerns and this one isn't much like the man from the four-corners.
twenty-mile is a town in decline. trevanian has a hard-on for america and what it has stood for, what it meant. he doesn't get political in the story, although it seems like that opinion does peek around the corner a time or two.
though there's some gun-play, questionable good guys, bad guys and all that, this isn't your typical "western" whatever that means. an entertaining read. some interesting characterization, good storyline, nice writing.
twenty-mile is a town in decline. trevanian has a hard-on for america and what it has stood for, what it meant. he doesn't get political in the story, although it seems like that opinion does peek around the corner a time or two.
though there's some gun-play, questionable good guys, bad guys and all that, this isn't your typical "western" whatever that means. an entertaining read. some interesting characterization, good storyline, nice writing.
January 5, 2021
After reading Shibumi - which was an excellent book, I wanted to give a chance to Trevanian's other works, but this time the Incident at Twenty Mile did not just do it for me. I had a hard time getting into the book at first. Since I read the translation in my native language, maybe the lack of fluency was due to translation. Although the story got me into it afterwards, the predictability of the end ruined the excitement for me. Still, can't help but get excited by imagining a wonderful Tarantino interpretation of the book. I feel like the story (including the long conversations, violence at the end and a little bit of morbid humor) suits his style.
November 26, 2017
It's been a long time since I accidentally stayed awake all night reading a book until it was finished. Incident at Twenty-Mile has everything I love - the Old West, serial killers, blood and gore, a main character who is hard to sympathise with. I'm so impressed with how easily I was drawn into the ghost-town of Twenty-Mile and felt like I could walk it's street in my head. The characters were all twists on the usual Old West tropes and the Main Event was insane. I really, seriously enjoyed this book more than anything I've read in a long time. Awesome.
July 4, 2013
Steinbeck meets Ennio Morricone somehow. Not bad at all.
March 10, 2015
Excellent book! It is gritty and funny with amazingly cruel bad guys and amazingly kind good guys. This is a must read for any historical fiction lover.
December 13, 2017
I found this book to be disturbing, horrifying and almost unreadable. I only forced myself to finish it because I don’t ever leave a book unfinished—though this one deserves that treatment.
June 18, 2021
Kitabın yazarı Trevanian olmasa,muhtemelen bu türde bir kitabı okumak aklıma gelmezdi.Kitabı alırken de,elime alıp okuyana kadar da;içeriği hakkında en ufak bir fikrim yoktu.Şibumi’yi okuyup en sevdiğim kitaplar arasına dahil olunca,hemen hemen birçok kitabını almış ve okumuştum.Gelelim bu kitabın bana neler hissettirdiğine.İtiraf etmeliyim ki;karakterleri tanıyıp,kitabın içine girene kadar çok sıkıldım.Ama sonrasında öyle sürükleyici geldi ki;kitabın yarısını gün içerisinde okudum ve bitirdim.Çocukluğu TRT’de kovboy filmleri izleyerek geçmiş biri olarak,yetişkinliğimde bu tür beni hiç cezbetmedi.Bu sebeple,seveceğime dair hiç umudum olmadan okumaya başladım.Bu ruh hali,okuyuşuma da olumsuz yansıdığı için başta okumakta çok zorlandım sanırım.Son olarak şunu söyleyebilirim ki;kovboy filmleri sevin ya da sevmeyin.Her türlü keyifli bir okuma olacağına emin olabilirsiniz.Karakterlerin ve olayların gerçek hayata dayanması ise ayrı bir sürpriz oldu.Yazarın kitabın sonunda bunu anlattığı ve gerçek hayatta karakterlerin izlerini sürdüğü bölüm ile kitap inanılmaz güzel bir şekilde noktalanmış.Yazarın her türde başarılı eserler verdiğine de bu kitapla bir kez daha şahit oldum.İyi ki bu dünyadan bir Trevanian geçmiş...
April 8, 2025
Surprisingly good for a story set in the West, late 20th century, mining for silver and the small town of support for these miners. Most of the small town residents are dependent on the miner's weekend visits to keep their small family owned businesses in operation. Life is simple, straight forward and predictable until three convicted moonberries (insane prison inmates) take over the town and terrorize everyone.
January 19, 2025
Una piacevolissima sorpresa.
Trevanian parte da una storia realmente accaduta, per raccontare la fine di un isolato agglomerato urbano sul finire dell'800.
Trevanian parte da una storia realmente accaduta, per raccontare la fine di un isolato agglomerato urbano sul finire dell'800.
January 25, 2025
Děkuji Blance za společnost při dobrodružství na Sázavě, při kterém se mi do rukou dostal tento westernový skvost.
July 22, 2019
En 1898, dans les montagnes du Wyoming, la petite ville de Twenty-Mile, situé au milieu de Nulle Part, vit au rythme des passages hebdomadaires des mineurs, venus chaque samedi dépenser quelques cents pour diner et dormir au chaud, passer quelques heures à boire et à recourir aux services des prostituées du saloon, puis faire leurs achats au magasin local.
Ce rythme pépère est d’abord perturbé par l’arrivée d’un jeune homme qui fuit un lourd secret, Matthew. Matthew déploie des trésors d’ingéniosité et de manipulation (ce qui donne lieu à des dialogues désopilants) pour ce faire accepter des habitants, qui voient les « étrangers » d’un mauvais œil. Quelques temps après l’arrivée de Matthew, les habitants vont devoir faire face à l’irruption d’un trio de méchants bien gratinés, conduit par Leader, véritable psychopathe dénué de la moindre empathie. Leader éprouve cependant un semblant de sentiment d’amitié pour Matthew, sentiment qui va le vulnérabiliser.
Mais le jeune homme, qui craint pour la vertu de la belle Ruth Lilian dont il est amoureux, met à profit ses lectures des aventures de Ringo Kid, romans-westerns qui lui inspirent un véritable code d’honneur : il réussit à persuader les habitants paralysée par les violences du trio de s’unir pour les éliminer…
Quel bonheur de lecture que cet Incident à Twenty Mile ! Les personnages sont décrits avec une grande finesse, chacun avec son caractère bien trempé, sans que l’on ne verse dans la caricature : on les visualise très bien ! Les dialogues sont savoureux, on rit beaucoup : il faut saluer encore une fois le talent de Jacques Mailhos qui a parfaitement su rendre tour à tour l’humour et la gravité des dialogues et des situations, et l’élégance du style de Trevanian. L’action est menée tambour battant : les codes du western sont restitués à merveille.
Mais au-delà du western, Trevanian a écrit avec Incident à Twenty Mile une page de l’histoire américaine, comme il l’explique dans la postface où l’on peut suivre l’évolution des personnages, chacun ayant vraiment existé. La conclusion de la postface apporte de la grandeur à certaines belles personnalités, naissantes dans le roman.
Un grand coup de cœur pour ce western, qui devrait plaire à tous les membres du #PicaboRiverBookClub !
Ce rythme pépère est d’abord perturbé par l’arrivée d’un jeune homme qui fuit un lourd secret, Matthew. Matthew déploie des trésors d’ingéniosité et de manipulation (ce qui donne lieu à des dialogues désopilants) pour ce faire accepter des habitants, qui voient les « étrangers » d’un mauvais œil. Quelques temps après l’arrivée de Matthew, les habitants vont devoir faire face à l’irruption d’un trio de méchants bien gratinés, conduit par Leader, véritable psychopathe dénué de la moindre empathie. Leader éprouve cependant un semblant de sentiment d’amitié pour Matthew, sentiment qui va le vulnérabiliser.
Mais le jeune homme, qui craint pour la vertu de la belle Ruth Lilian dont il est amoureux, met à profit ses lectures des aventures de Ringo Kid, romans-westerns qui lui inspirent un véritable code d’honneur : il réussit à persuader les habitants paralysée par les violences du trio de s’unir pour les éliminer…
Quel bonheur de lecture que cet Incident à Twenty Mile ! Les personnages sont décrits avec une grande finesse, chacun avec son caractère bien trempé, sans que l’on ne verse dans la caricature : on les visualise très bien ! Les dialogues sont savoureux, on rit beaucoup : il faut saluer encore une fois le talent de Jacques Mailhos qui a parfaitement su rendre tour à tour l’humour et la gravité des dialogues et des situations, et l’élégance du style de Trevanian. L’action est menée tambour battant : les codes du western sont restitués à merveille.
Mais au-delà du western, Trevanian a écrit avec Incident à Twenty Mile une page de l’histoire américaine, comme il l’explique dans la postface où l’on peut suivre l’évolution des personnages, chacun ayant vraiment existé. La conclusion de la postface apporte de la grandeur à certaines belles personnalités, naissantes dans le roman.
Un grand coup de cœur pour ce western, qui devrait plaire à tous les membres du #PicaboRiverBookClub !
March 25, 2020
This seems to be a typical Western book (although I have little experience with this genre). An almost deserted town survives because the silver miners come to town on the train once a week. They buy and drink booze, they eat and sleep (somewhat) at the boarding house and bathe. There are also three "ladies" to take care of their other desires. A young man wanders into town and even though everyone tells him there is no work - he stays and manages to get a little work from several businesses (the bar, the general store, the bath house). He has little history to tell but is genuinely nice to everyone. He did bring a homemade long gun with him and a few homemade bullets. He tries to sell it but no one is interested. There is also a young virgin girl, daughter of the owner of the general store. Then --- three evil men who have escaped from the prison for the insane arrive. They all have guns, take all the guns away from the folks in the village and terrorize all of them. Kill some of them. Am I doing ok so far? A typical Western. Well, the rest of the book is what you imagine. The bad guys get killed, the good people walk through the snow to the next village, some die. Some live on for a long time. I need to read out of my normal range sometime. This was interesting. Nothing more.
This is a pseudonym and information about the author is interesting. Check him out on Wickipedia.
This is a pseudonym and information about the author is interesting. Check him out on Wickipedia.
July 3, 2022
A criminally underrated piece of Western fiction, inexplicably out of print, that’s at once a classic example of the genre, a sly bit of revisionist meta-fiction, and — perhaps — a sly joke the author is playing on his readers.
The story proper is bookended by theoretically nonfiction sections in which the author lays out his inspiration for, and the real history behind, this “last Western” as he so intriguingly puts it. It’s these sections that feel a bit too twinkle-eyed and grinning to be taken at face value, and I’m not sure it matters anyway.
The for-sure fiction that makes up the heart of Incident at Twenty-Mile is dazzling regardless of its veracity. The story is a wildly successful collection of all the tropes one might expect from a solid Western novel, but informed by a slew of highly literary magic tricks, including sly authorial commentary that walks a knife edge between homage and gentle mocking:
“Mrs. Bjorkvist ran the boarding house, which was really just a big dining room that served “steaks” (the quotation marks are meant to suggest the same level of dubiousness as those around “girls” when describing the hotel’s whores).”
“There’s absolutely nothing happening in Twenty-Mile. And that’s on busy days. This is a town without history. Its past is only eleven years long, and it has no future at all.”
The ostensible hero of the novel is a young man name Matthew, a “damaged boy” with terrible secrets in his past and an inordinate affection for the “Ringo Kid” novels of Anthony Bradford Chumms (not real, although there was a “Ringo Kid” comic book series in the 1950s, sneaky Mister Trevanian).
Matthew drifts into town and proves himself a bit of a slick-talking chameleon, wriggling his way into a number of odd jobs and serving as a veritable sponge for the expositional stories that introduce us to the residents of Twenty-Mile. Trevanian handles that exposition in a really fascinating way — by allowing pretty much every character to be a bit of an unrealized novelist. The way the novel backgrounds individual characters largely through the gossip of other characters is fascinating and weirdly effective. You feel like Trevanian is “showing” rather than “telling” even when he’s blatantly doing the opposite. Very tricky.
“Kane’s not a bad man, just weak. He’s let bitterness and self-pity gnaw at him until it’s eaten half-way through his heart. And his daughter...? Well, I feel sorry for her, growing up in Twenty-Mile. But she’s got spunk and she’ll find a way to get out one of these days. As for the rest of us...” (That simple bit of seemingly throwaway dialogue telegraphs several major plot points that bear fruit later in the book.)
Trevanian also manages to sneak a bunch of fairly pointed commentary into the confines of his narrative without seeming overly political:
“You know how Indians are about white promises. They just keep swallowing the bait and swallowing the bait and swallowing the bait.”
“That’s the way it was. When you arrived, you were exploited by those who had come before you. Then, if you were clever and hard-working — and lucky! Don’t forget lucky — you could become exploiters in your turn. That was the Great American Promise!”
If I have a complaint about the book, it’s with the primary villain — the escaped convict Lieder —and his two henchman, Tiny and Bobby-My-Boy). The henchman are basically straight out of Central Casting, ugly and nasty but generally unimportant as neither has much of a mind of his own. Trevanian takes Lieder to such extreme levels of insanity and depravity, however, that at times he comes close to being a cartoon. Despite that (or perhaps because of it), the sequence that finally ends his reign of terror (sorry, it’s a Western, of course the bad guy gets his just reward in the end) is uniquely thrilling and satisfying and, in terms of the other characters involved, legitimately moving. I absolutely teared up a couple of times in the final pages of the “fictional” part of the book.
I do have to say: rereading this book in 2022 was a bit of a mind-trip. It’s impossible to read some of Lieder’s demented diatribes now without flashing on events in America over the past, say, six or seven years and a certain bloated orange personality who shall remain nameless. Consider this passage, originally published in 1998:
“Stupid, trusting Americans have never even heard of The International Conspiracy, because all the newspapers are being blackmailed and don’t dare print the truth. Why, most Americans don’t even know that the Pope in Rome has given instructions to the Irish and the Jews and the Mexicans and all the rest of them, ordering them to breed hard and fast. ... Pretty soon they’ll outnumber us, and they’ll vote one of their own kind to become president of these United States! ... White Protestant Americans will find themselves in the minority because we’re basically being outfucked!”
1998, y’all. Jesus.
I’m going to close this already long review with three examples of Trevanian’s basic literary skill with image and phrasing. In addition to whatever else this book is, it’s gorgeously written on a sentence by sentence level:
“A moth tapped plumply against the lamp chimney and circled over its updraft: intrigued, infatuated, baffled...”
“As Matthew numbly passed the rifle to B.J., one of the mules died. Died with pathetic simplicity. It stretched its neck and looked back toward its wounded flank, its white eye huge with sorrow, then it lowered its head to the ground and, with a sound like a human sigh, died.”
And, finally:
“He decided that Frenchy and Mr. Delanny were like strangers passing time together while they waited for a train. ‘Strangers who are going in the same direction, but not to the same place.’”
A great American novel that should be much more widely known — and more readily available.
The story proper is bookended by theoretically nonfiction sections in which the author lays out his inspiration for, and the real history behind, this “last Western” as he so intriguingly puts it. It’s these sections that feel a bit too twinkle-eyed and grinning to be taken at face value, and I’m not sure it matters anyway.
The for-sure fiction that makes up the heart of Incident at Twenty-Mile is dazzling regardless of its veracity. The story is a wildly successful collection of all the tropes one might expect from a solid Western novel, but informed by a slew of highly literary magic tricks, including sly authorial commentary that walks a knife edge between homage and gentle mocking:
“Mrs. Bjorkvist ran the boarding house, which was really just a big dining room that served “steaks” (the quotation marks are meant to suggest the same level of dubiousness as those around “girls” when describing the hotel’s whores).”
“There’s absolutely nothing happening in Twenty-Mile. And that’s on busy days. This is a town without history. Its past is only eleven years long, and it has no future at all.”
The ostensible hero of the novel is a young man name Matthew, a “damaged boy” with terrible secrets in his past and an inordinate affection for the “Ringo Kid” novels of Anthony Bradford Chumms (not real, although there was a “Ringo Kid” comic book series in the 1950s, sneaky Mister Trevanian).
Matthew drifts into town and proves himself a bit of a slick-talking chameleon, wriggling his way into a number of odd jobs and serving as a veritable sponge for the expositional stories that introduce us to the residents of Twenty-Mile. Trevanian handles that exposition in a really fascinating way — by allowing pretty much every character to be a bit of an unrealized novelist. The way the novel backgrounds individual characters largely through the gossip of other characters is fascinating and weirdly effective. You feel like Trevanian is “showing” rather than “telling” even when he’s blatantly doing the opposite. Very tricky.
“Kane’s not a bad man, just weak. He’s let bitterness and self-pity gnaw at him until it’s eaten half-way through his heart. And his daughter...? Well, I feel sorry for her, growing up in Twenty-Mile. But she’s got spunk and she’ll find a way to get out one of these days. As for the rest of us...” (That simple bit of seemingly throwaway dialogue telegraphs several major plot points that bear fruit later in the book.)
Trevanian also manages to sneak a bunch of fairly pointed commentary into the confines of his narrative without seeming overly political:
“You know how Indians are about white promises. They just keep swallowing the bait and swallowing the bait and swallowing the bait.”
“That’s the way it was. When you arrived, you were exploited by those who had come before you. Then, if you were clever and hard-working — and lucky! Don’t forget lucky — you could become exploiters in your turn. That was the Great American Promise!”
If I have a complaint about the book, it’s with the primary villain — the escaped convict Lieder —and his two henchman, Tiny and Bobby-My-Boy). The henchman are basically straight out of Central Casting, ugly and nasty but generally unimportant as neither has much of a mind of his own. Trevanian takes Lieder to such extreme levels of insanity and depravity, however, that at times he comes close to being a cartoon. Despite that (or perhaps because of it), the sequence that finally ends his reign of terror (sorry, it’s a Western, of course the bad guy gets his just reward in the end) is uniquely thrilling and satisfying and, in terms of the other characters involved, legitimately moving. I absolutely teared up a couple of times in the final pages of the “fictional” part of the book.
I do have to say: rereading this book in 2022 was a bit of a mind-trip. It’s impossible to read some of Lieder’s demented diatribes now without flashing on events in America over the past, say, six or seven years and a certain bloated orange personality who shall remain nameless. Consider this passage, originally published in 1998:
“Stupid, trusting Americans have never even heard of The International Conspiracy, because all the newspapers are being blackmailed and don’t dare print the truth. Why, most Americans don’t even know that the Pope in Rome has given instructions to the Irish and the Jews and the Mexicans and all the rest of them, ordering them to breed hard and fast. ... Pretty soon they’ll outnumber us, and they’ll vote one of their own kind to become president of these United States! ... White Protestant Americans will find themselves in the minority because we’re basically being outfucked!”
1998, y’all. Jesus.
I’m going to close this already long review with three examples of Trevanian’s basic literary skill with image and phrasing. In addition to whatever else this book is, it’s gorgeously written on a sentence by sentence level:
“A moth tapped plumply against the lamp chimney and circled over its updraft: intrigued, infatuated, baffled...”
“As Matthew numbly passed the rifle to B.J., one of the mules died. Died with pathetic simplicity. It stretched its neck and looked back toward its wounded flank, its white eye huge with sorrow, then it lowered its head to the ground and, with a sound like a human sigh, died.”
And, finally:
“He decided that Frenchy and Mr. Delanny were like strangers passing time together while they waited for a train. ‘Strangers who are going in the same direction, but not to the same place.’”
A great American novel that should be much more widely known — and more readily available.
October 21, 2020
I read this book for two Pop Sugar Challenge 2020 prompts - a book with "twenty" in the title and a Western. Ugh! It was awful! I read Trevanian in the 1980s and remember liking The Eiger Sanction and I had the book. I hadn't remembered reading it before but as I read, I did. So not worth a second read! This book is a horror movie with a psychopath main character who rants endlessly, page after page. Not the kind of book I enjoy.
July 2, 2008
This a page-turner Western. The characters are somewhat predictable, but Trevanian is a great story-teller, and I didn't care. The ending of this tale is not what you would typically expect of this genre. I would advise you not to read the "list" of characters at the end of the novel. If you look too closely, some plot will be given away.
May 1, 2021
I'm not a huge western fan, but this was a really enjoyable read. Interesting characters and setting. Trevanian does a fantastic job of using the standard genre plot devices without seeming derivative--a true challenge, I would imagine. Anyway, he injects enough reality and depth so that it comes off as more than just another western.
June 3, 2011
The end of the line... literally. Murderers, silver, innocents, Wyoming and the transition time in the west. I'm a fan of pretty much everything he's written and this is no exception. Great characters, perfect setting, plot's fantastic... just enough correct historical backdrop. Read it.
February 24, 2008
I didn't finish this book. It was too horrible, crude and dark. I was very disappointed.
April 20, 2010
A young runaway arrives in this small town in the Wyoming
mountains in 1890; just before it is taken over by three
prison escapees. Very well written.
mountains in 1890; just before it is taken over by three
prison escapees. Very well written.
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