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Hop Alley

A Novel

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Cottonwood (2004) was a huge step forward for the burgeoning king of noir Scott Phillips, and his dark and gritty take on the western earned him starred reviews and praise from crime masters Michael Connelly and George Pelecanos. That novel featured the Kansas town beginning in 1872 when it was just a small community of run down farms, dusty roads, and two–bit crooks. Saloon owner and photographer Bill Ogden thought it could be more and allied with wealthy developer Marc Leval to capitalize on the advent of the railroad and the cattle trail that soon turned Cottonwood into a wild boomtown. But problems followed the money and soon Bill was confronting both the wicked family of serial killers known as the Bloody Benders as well as his one–time friend Marc, having fallen into an affair with his beautiful wife Maggie. Bill then turned up alone in San Francisco in 1890, having to face a past from which he could not run.
But what happened to him in those missing years? What happened to Maggie, to Bill, and their escape from the murderous Bender family?
Hop Alley answers all those questions as we return to the Wild West and discover Bill Ogden, now living as Bill Sadlaw, running a photo studio near the Chinese part of town know as Hop Alley in the frontier town of Denver in 1878. Left by Maggie, Bill enjoys an erotic affair with Priscilla, a fallen singer addicted to laudanum, who is also seeing his friend Ralph Banbury, the editor of the local Denver Bulletin (neither man minds sharing). Bill's peaceful time away from Cottonwood turns anything but as he must confront the mysterious murder of his housekeeper's brother–in–law, the increasing instability of Priscilla as both men try to ease out of her clutches, and an all out–riot across Hop Alley. And when the body count starts rising, Bill will soon start wishing he had never left Cottonwood at all.
Hop Alley proves that no one does the Wild West like noir master Scott Phillips.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from March 17, 2014
      Set in 1878, Phillips’s excellent sequel to Cottonwood (2004) continues the adventures of Bill Ogden, frontier photographer and libertine. Ogden has set up shop in Denver under the name Bill Sadlaw. His business isn’t exactly flourishing, but Ogden is getting by with portraiture work and by selling novelty photo sets. He enjoys the regular attentions of Priscilla, a lovely yet volatile laudanum addict. Things begin to get complicated when a local newsman—the abusive father of Ogden’s young assistant, Lemuel—ends up dead. The case dominates the headlines in Denver, and when two Chinese men from nearby Hop Alley are mistakenly implicated, already-simmering racial tension erupts into a full-scale anti-Chinese riot. Phillips’s skillful use of real historical events will resonate with fans of George Macdonald Fraser’s Flashman series. Readers unfamiliar with Phillips’s other work can jump in without difficulty, but devotees will especially appreciate this slim, entertaining interlude in the larger Ogden story. Agent: David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management.

    • Library Journal

      June 1, 2014

      In this sequel to Phillips's Cottonwood, featuring photographer Bill Ogden's unsuccessful efforts to make 1872 Cottonwood, KS, a boomtown, our hero is now Bill Sadlaw of Denver, abandoned by classy wife Maggie, involved in a steamy affair, and investigating murder. VERDICT Not a squeaky clean 1950s TV-style Western but not brutally noir either, this is fun, propulsive reading for anyone who likes historicals with a touch of mystery.

      Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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