Church of the Graveyard Saints

by C. Joseph Greaves

"The landscape looms large in this contemplative novel…with both passion and compassion, Greaves takes readers on a lyrical, vivid tour of the West."
— PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Returning to her small Colorado hometown to find her old high school flame newly single and a new gas field threatening her family's cattle ranch, eco–activist Addie Decker ignites an armed conflict revealing cold truths about love and family, forgiveness and self–discovery.

C. JOSEPH GREAVES spent 25 years as an LA trial lawyer before devoting his talents to fiction. Sometimes writing as Chuck Greaves, he has been a finalist for most of the major awards in crime fiction including the Shamus, Macavity, Lefty, and Audie, as well as the New Mexico–Arizona, Oklahoma, and Colorado Book Awards. He is the author of five previous novels, most recently Tom & Lucky , a Wall Street Journal "Best Books of 2015" selection and finalist for the 2016 Harper Lee Prize. He is also a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the book critic for the Four Corners Free Press newspaper in southwestern Colorado, where he lives and writes. You can visit him at www.chuckgreaves.com.

220 pages, Paperback

Published August 27, 2019

About the author

See also Chuck Greaves

Charles Joseph Greaves is an honors graduate of both the University of Southern California and Boston College Law School who spent 25 years as a Los Angeles trial lawyer before turning his talents to fiction.

HARD TWISTED (Bloomsbury), Chuck's debut historical/true-crime novel, was called "a taut and intriguing thriller" (London Sunday Times) and "a gritty, gripping read, and one that begs to be put on film" (Los Angeles Times.)

TOM & LUCKY AND GEORGE & COKEY FLO (Bloomsbury), Chuck's second historical/true-crime novel, recounts gangster Lucky Luciano's colorful and controversial 1936 vice trial and was named by the Wall Street Journal to its year-end uulist of the "Best Books of 2015." Tom & Lucky was also a finalist for both the Macavity Award from Mystery Readers International and the 2016 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.

CHURCH OF THE GRAVEYARD SAINTS (Torrey House Press), Chuck's third work of literary fiction, was selected by six U.S. cities to launch their "Four Corners/One Book" regional reading program in 2019-2020. Of its central premise, Publishers Weekly wrote: "Can one go home again? Greaves explores this question with both passion and compassion, taking readers on a lyrical, vivid tour of the West."

In addition, Chuck publishes mystery fiction as Chuck Greaves. He has been a finalist for numerous national honors including the Shamus, Lefty, Reviewers Choice, and Audie Awards, as well as the New Mexico-Arizona, Colorado, and Oklahoma Book Awards. He is also a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the book critic for the Four Corners Free Press newspaper in Colorado, where he currently lives. You can visit him at www.chuckgreaves.com.

Reviews

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I didn't realize going in was that this imprint is one of "agenda literature," in which a position is taken by means of telling a good story with compelling characters and gives more information than usually found in novels. At once a history of a place, a population, a family, it is the relationship between those people and others but primarily of the red clay dust that "gets into your clothes and into your hair and sometimes, when you least expect it, into your heart."

[OLT · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although only 263 pages long, this book manages to cover a lot of ground. It's a well-told tale, with environmentalist Addie Decker coming back to Cortez, Colorado, for the first time since leaving for university in California. She's back home to attend the funeral of her grandmother Vivian and she brings her lover, Dr. Bradley Sommers, head of the university's Center for Climate Change along.

It's not easy for Addie to face her father and her old high school sweetheart and the various personal issues that had had her leaving home with no intention to return. And there are also environmental issues to deal with. The Archer-Mason Corporation is doing carbon dioxide extraction of fossil fuel throughout the area and wants to use Red Rocks also, the ranch she has just inherited from her grandmother. She and Bradley, as environmentalists, are opposed to the corporation's actions.

This book isn't just a story about Addie and her you-can't-go-home-again dilemma. It is actually advocacy literature, to support "environmental conservation through literature", published by nonprofit Torrey House Press. As such, it has an agenda. It takes on the all too real and all too imminent environmental threat posed by exploitation of the planet to extract fossil fuels and the all too real economic needs of inhabitants of the area exploited which cause them to allow this, ignoring threats to their own health and to the health of the planet. If you need money to survive on your land, odds are you'll be leasing some of that land to big oil companies for extraction purposes.

For being agenda literature, this is well done. The characters here are not caricatures; they are well drawn and well developed, especially when you consider how short this novel actually is. The main characters are Addie, her lover Bradley, her father and grandfather, and her ex-lover Colt, but even the secondaries are done well and given complexity. Even several members of the militia which gets involved in the conflict here are not just assigned evil villain status.

This isn't great literature but it is good writing and an interesting story, one that you can imagine as a movie as you are reading it. The plot moves along well. The characters, as I said before, have surprising depth. And the agenda of the book does not turn into a preachy polemic. The issues treated here include public land cattle grazing, methane emissions, oil and gas extraction, and the effects of climate change on the ranchers' and farmers' lives.

Lots to think about here. It's easy enough, if you are living in a big city, to say stop the extractions and just harness the energy of the sun and wind. But if you are one of these ranchers or farmers, your pocketbook will affect your feelings about environmental concerns. Here's hoping we will be able to reach a solution in time.

[Sharon Mensing · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book, with its setting squarely in the center of the mining vs. ranching controversy in the West. Addie Decker returns to her family ranch for her grandmother's funeral, bringing along her professor/lover with whom she's been working on environmental issues at the Los Angeles college she escaped to. Upon returning, she reconnects with an old boyfriend and finds herself torn between the highly educated environmentalist and the much rougher oil and gas worker. The activism on the part of her current lover coincides with a militia uprising at the gas well on her family's BLM grazing allotment, and she is caught in the middle both on political issues and in her personal loyalties. Both men surprise her, and she ends up being forced to make a choice between two vastly disparate lifestyles.

The description of the land is beautiful, and the characters are well developed. When the militia and the environmentalists clash mid-book, the plot takes over and the book becomes nearly impossible to put down. This book makes the reader think about a variety of current issues: ranching on federal land, the effects of gas drilling, environmental activists' tactics, militia groups, how Native American land is treated, and personal relationships.

This is not the first foray into the Western landscape by this author, though it is the first time I've read his books. Now I will need to go back and read his previous work.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly enjoyable read on three levels. First, the plot is excellent. Environmentalists, local residents and a multi-generational family clash over carbon dioxide drilling rights. It eventually leads to the kind of standoff all too common in recent years, as a local "militia" takes hostages at a drill site in order to bring media attention to their libertarian aims (think Ammon Bundy). At which point the fast-paced thriller aspect of the plot kicks into high gear. Second, the agendas of all involved remain complicated. The militia contain complex elements, and actually make a compelling case for drilling. The environmentalist college professor is as far from a "tree-hugger" as can be imagined. Think Machiavelli with green concerns. As the reader flips from viewpoint to viewpoint it becomes increasingly difficult to sort out who has the moral high ground, although both groups forfeit that position by the end of the book.

Finally, and most important, Church of the Graveyard Saints is the most evocative depiction of the Western landscape that I have read since . . . well, Willa Cather, I suppose. Greaves puts the reader right in the middle of it. He clearly knows horses, and he loves the mesas, the mountains and the people. The meaning of the title doesn't become clear until the final pages. It did not disappoint. Greaves has accomplished something for this reader, at least: I now want to see this part of the country. And even Willa Cather never got me to that point.

Highly recommend.

[James (JD) Dittes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up in Maria's Bookstore during a visit to Durango, Colorado. It proved to be a great part of my summer vacation to the Four Corners region.

The "Graveyard Saints" of the title is an allusion to the Latter-day Saints, ancestors of Addie Decker, the main character, who forged a 'hole in the rock' to get through the impenetrable canyons of southeastern Utah in the late-1800s, a portion of which moved on to present-day Cortez, Colorado, around which this novel is set.

It is the death of one-such "saint," Addie's grandmother, Vivian that brings her home to Cortez after years in California, studying environmental science at UCLA. She brings with her a boyfriend/ major professor, Bradley, whose focus seems to be more on drilling leases than the "girl next door" he bedded in Cali.

Greaves has a gift for characterization. I could "see" so many of the people he created for this work: Addie, her father, Jess, her high-school boyfriend, Colt; members of the rag-tag militia that mobilizes to protect the interests of big-business, out-of-town energy companies.

As a complete outsider to the area, I really enjoyed Greaves's insights and the pictures he painted, which were confirmed for me as I drove around, visiting sites like Mesa Verde National Park and taking an afternoon drive up to Blanding, Utah.

I would highly recommend Church of the Graveyard Saints to anyone else planning to explore the Four Corners region and Cortez in particular. I'm so glad I picked this up.

[Christine Quinlan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was compelled to read this novel because of its McElmo Canyon setting in southwest Colorado's Canyon of the Ancients National Monument--a place I have done several land conservation projects.
This is a story of how real-world agendas conflict and collide between the oil and gas industry that supports the local economy, environmental activists aimed at speeding the conversation to renewable energy sources, generational ranch families struggling to hang on in today's economy, and a band of local militiamen who thrive on misinformation and armed conflict. Only the ranchers remain above the fray of short-sighted actions, as one surprising theme is the unsavory tactics of the enviros who use people and questionable means to exert power and get an outcome they want.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This compelling family drama involving impassioned environmentalism and third- and fourth-generation ranching, set in the rural southwest, takes the reader on a journey through greed, fervor and economics pitting family against family and community against industrial might. No matter which side of the global warming issue you are on, Greaves’ novel reveals the causes and effects on all concerned. Which is everyone. With well structured prose, this tightly woven story is told through the conflicts of daughter, father and grandfather. The story unfolds promptly, does not lag and ends all too soon. It's an enjoyable page turner that gets the reader thinking about contemporary issues but does not preach.

[Melissa Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially, I mistakenly assumed that Logan had applied to a college on his daughter's behalf but apparently he hid an acceptance letter. His character improved as the book went on. Jess was my personal favorite of the male characters. As for Colt, I still think it's bizarre to be relieved that your baby didn't live for very long, especially given he was willing to take responsibility for the baby he shared with Addie, who seems to have an abortion. Also, don't marry people if you're still in love with someone else.

I never liked Bradley. He was always the villian in my eyes and that never changed. Addie's character got on my nerves at first but her arc improved over the course of the story.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I seriously considered one star. I chose this book browsing at the county library because I hoped the landscape would be a character (and it was), and because I trust Torrey Press.

And I loved the setting. I liked the characters. But the storyline is problematic. The manipulation. The outsiders coming in. Is the miscarriage thing only a problem when the unrelated power plant is open? The lack of communication being portrayed as a good thing. Also opening with the professor and grad student in a relationship. Oh it was the tropes too.

Anyway I'm glad I read it, I loved the setting, and the storyline was weird and manipulative.

[Ann Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimately I really enjoyed the relevancy of this book-very pertinent to current events & concerns. There were a couple of places that, I felt were not well edited, but it didn’t interfere with the story. Glad to learn author is a USC graduate, 4 years after me. He now lives in SW Colorado. Mr Greaves knows & writes well about our landscape & landmarks. I recommend this book.

Read for April book club, which will likely be cancelled, or postponed. Maybe we gals can figure out a virtual meeting!

[Susan Gaines · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an engaging story of family and love, but what I particularly appreciated was the way it personalized and brought to life the difficulties of balancing land use and environmental decisions--and, in the process, taught me a lot about the actual processes of fracking and gas extraction.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little novel constructed around the political-environmental issues in SW Colorado. Multiple character arcs, some done better than others. I personally prefer longer books if the length is used for more satisfying character evolution.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly ecopolitics, some plot and character development, some gaslighting.

[MandM · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Micheline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the oppositions between the two sides and between the characters. The author created a realistic story about creating wealth or protecting the environment.

[Cynthia Gittes · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2.5 or 3-

[Joellen Dickey]

story of local woman in McElmo canyon, fighting oil/gas industry.

not great, but good local history

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Annoyingly predictable in the beginning but it got better.

[Steven Howes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Southwestern Colorado, this novel deals with the intersection of a number of current issues facing us today. A young UCLA student returns to her family ranch in the company of her significant other/college professor (could be a separate issue in the eyes of some) following the death of her grandmother. Both are environmental activists and climate change advocates. This put them in conflict with corporate oil and gas interests and members of the local community who rely on the high paying jobs the industry provides and that support the local economy. The family ranch is a money loser. What transpires includes some complex family and other interpersonal relationships that eventually conclude with a dramatic militia-type conflict. During the course of the story, the characters evolve and show their true mettle in the end.

I found this to be an interesting and enjoyable read. What I found particularly compelling about the story is that most sides involved had both good and not so good characteristics. The oil and gas industry does contribute to climate change and is non-renewable but does provide energy and benefits local economies. Small farms and ranches have been a way of life in our country for a long time and have been a needed source of food. They are in danger of being swallowed up by corporate interests and have their own environmental concerns. Environmental organizations, while often being portrayed as the white hat guys, may sometimes resort to questionable tactics in order to achieve their objectives. Personally I cannot condone the actions of armed groups taking the law into their own hands. I may be making too much of the story but I think it certainly provides a message worth discussing. It remains for the reader to form his or her opinions about how to balance all these concerns after reading the book.