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The Hangman's Tree
They call it " The Hangman's Tree ." Everyone in Marfa, Texas, knows about the old madrone tree out on the Lacy ranch. Town lore says the tree's strange crimson bark is colored by the blood of thirteen men--each of whom met his death by hanging from the tree's sturdiest branch. It's been years since the last lynching--until local troublemaker Danny Lacy is discovered one blistering morning hanging dead from the tree, a hangman's knot around his neck. And now it's up to Texas Rangers Claude Groves and Carla Jenkins to find some answers. As Claude and Carla sift through dead-end clues and uncooperative witnesses, they learn that most folks in town suspect that Danny's murder was a simple case of a fight gone too far. But when the Rangers find a secret drug-making lab right in Danny's house, they know they're dealing with something much more complicated. And the answers they seek are closer than they realize. For somewhere in town, a silent witness is hiding what she knows--from a killer who will stop at nothing to silence her....
276 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 5, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 17, 2023
The Hangman's Tree, Frederic Bean (mystery, crime, western)
Jeff Book Review #222
In this modern-day crime mystery, a rich man's son is found hanged at an old tree in South Texas. Two Texas Rangers are assigned the case and spend their time alternately investigating the crime, trying to work through the townsfolks' reluctance to deal with these Rangers in the first place, dealing with their own feelings for each other, and then the mystery starts rolling. It takes some time.
The cringey old-guy-young-protege romantic edge in this one is an awkward bludgeon that makes the rest of Hangman's Tree seem less real as a result.
History and legacy and resistance to change loom large in this story, and it shares a little in common with other modern western-set crime mysteries written by folks like CJ Box, Craig Johnson, and Tony Hillerman, but I'd say “Hangman’s Tree” is a lighter mystery than those and not as much of a police procedural or horror-thriller. I’m still noting it would be a rated-R movie but only for foul language.
Verdict: A good murder mystery set in southwest Texas hampered by weird dirty old man vibes.
Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
Jeff Book Review #222
In this modern-day crime mystery, a rich man's son is found hanged at an old tree in South Texas. Two Texas Rangers are assigned the case and spend their time alternately investigating the crime, trying to work through the townsfolks' reluctance to deal with these Rangers in the first place, dealing with their own feelings for each other, and then the mystery starts rolling. It takes some time.
The cringey old-guy-young-protege romantic edge in this one is an awkward bludgeon that makes the rest of Hangman's Tree seem less real as a result.
History and legacy and resistance to change loom large in this story, and it shares a little in common with other modern western-set crime mysteries written by folks like CJ Box, Craig Johnson, and Tony Hillerman, but I'd say “Hangman’s Tree” is a lighter mystery than those and not as much of a police procedural or horror-thriller. I’m still noting it would be a rated-R movie but only for foul language.
Verdict: A good murder mystery set in southwest Texas hampered by weird dirty old man vibes.
Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: R
April 4, 2013
This was a murder mystery with a different twist. I enjoyed this book and you might too
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews