Kerney Family Trilogy - Michael McGarrity

Written by Michael McGarrity
Read by George Guidall
Format: MP3
Bitrate: Mixed
Unabridged

Hard Country
Kerney Family Trilogy, Book 1
Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Release date: May 10, 2012
Duration: 15:53:55

American West trilogy set in the raw, untrammeled New Mexico backlands during the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and World War II.

After the deaths of his wife and brother, John Kerney gives up his West Texas ranch and heads south in search of a new home. Soon Kerney is offered work-trailing cattle to the New Mexico Territory—a job that will forever change his life.

Publishers Weekly
“This sprawling western saga shakes trail dust through three generations of New Mexico ranchers carving out a place in the Tularosa Basin at the end of the frontier era. McGarrity, a former Santa Fe deputy sheriff and author of the long-running Kevin Kerney mystery series, gives his police chief protagonist a familiar family back story, sending Civil War veteran John Kerney to the New Mexico territory to establish a ranch in an era when work was tough, cowboys were tougher, and daily life was an uncertain proposition. McGarrity knows and loves the harsh landscape, but his characters are sparely drawn, and the emotionally stunted, suspicious, and compulsively misanthropic Patrick Kerney makes for a difficult protagonist to carry the family saga element of this expansive novel. Insights are spelled out, rather than shown. “The forsaken, lost little boy who lived inside of Patrick made him who he was, but that didn’t give him the right to bully her,” and the frequent cowboy talk is laid on too thickly. But fans of McGarrity’s modern police procedurals will appreciate his chronicle of a time and place that he obviously cares for.”

“George Guidall’s excellent storytelling skills take the listener from 1875-1918, following the Kerney family through three generations of hardship, war, tragedy, and triumph. The fast-moving plot has more action than conversation. Still, it’s Guidall’s character voices that bring the story to life. He perfectly portrays stubborn cowboys, evil villains, young boys, and scrappy women. His tone remains just detached enough to help soften the blows of the endless stream of tragedies. The untimely death of nearly every character will soon have the listener feeling as hardened as the country itself.” — AudioFile

Backlands
Kerney Family Trilogy, Book 2
Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Release date: May 6, 2014
Duration: 14:09:49

Backlands advances the story of Patrick Kerney; his ex-wife, Emma; and their young son, Matthew, shortly after the tragic battlefield death of their eldest son, CJ, at the end of World War I. Scarred by the loss of an older brother he idolized, estranged from a father he barely knows, and deeply troubled by the failing health of a mother he adores, eight-year-old Matthew is suddenly and irrevocably forced to set aside his childhood and take on responsibilities far beyond his years. When the world spirals into the Great Depression and drought settles like a plague over the nation, Matt must abandon his own dreams to salvage the Kerney ranch. Plunged into a deep trough of dark family secrets, hidden crimes, broken promises, and lies, Matt must struggle to survive on the unforgiving, sun-blasted, drought-stricken Tularosa Basin.

“…Guidall’s voice imbues each character with his or her own accent and intonation. He moves flawlessly between Hispanic, Texan, and Boston accents, from male to female, and back again. As characters age, Guidall’s portrayal evolves, usually becoming grittier. Overall, his reading brings every scene to life as this twentieth-century history of the American West unfolds.”— Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award

The Last Ranch
Kerney Family Trilogy, Book 3
Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Release date: May 17, 2016
Duration: 14:17:18

When Matthew Kerney returns to his ranch in the beautiful San Andres Mountains after serving in Sicily during World War II, he must not only fight to recover physically and emotionally from a devastating war injury, but he must also battle attempts by the U.S. Army to seize control of his land for expanded weapons testing. Forced off public grazing lands, banned from gathering his cattle on high mountain pastures, and confronted by military police guarding a high security army post on the northern reaches of the range, Matt finds himself at the center of a heavy-handed government land-grab.

The reasons behind this surge of secrecy and control become clear when Matt witnesses the boiling, blinding explosion of the first atom bomb at Trinity Site. As he struggles with an aging, stove-up father no longer able to carry a heavy load at the ranch, an ex-convict intent on killing him, and a failing relationship with a woman he dearly loves, Matt must draw upon all his mental and physical resources to keep his world-and the people in it-from collapsing.

Note—I had different sources for these books. All were originally on tape and sound varies from book to book. Hard Country was from disk and I merged the tracks and edited. The Audible copy’s sound was so low it was difficult to hear..