The Water Hole

A Western Story

By: Zane Grey

Narrated by: Christine Williams

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

It would seem that the end of every war has been followed in the United States by social and moral changes, mostly for the worse. Zane Grey certainly felt that way about the effects of the Great War, and to show these changes and how to cope with them became the impulse behind what he called The Water Hole. However, before magazine publication, changes were made in his text, including the names of all the characters. Fortunately Grey's original handwritten manuscript has survived, so now this story can be told with his characters named and presented as he intended them to be.

In 1925 widowed businessman Elijah Winters brings his daughter, Cherry, from Long Island to stay at a trading post in a remote area some distance from Flagstaff, Arizona. Removed from the country clubs and speakeasies, Cherry is at first bored with simple ranch life, and to entertain herself she flirts with several of the cowboys, not realizing they are very different from the young men she knew back east. Also very different is Stephen Heftral, a young archaeologist who is searching for an ancient and lost kiva ofa primitive Indian tribe that disappeared centuries before in what became the land of the Navajos.

Heftral believes that this lost kiva is most probably in a desert fastness called Beckyshibeta, the Navajo word for waterhole. Elijah colludes with Heftral to awaken Cherry to a new and healthier way of life by taking her, by force if necessary, to the site. Cherry resents being kidnapped but comes to forget the luxury of her past in the beauty and dangers of the canyons - and in the thrill of making an important archaeological discovery.

©1954 Zane Grey (P)2014 Blackstone Audio

The Lost Pueblo

I read this book as a youth, entitled "The Lost Pueblo", a title not found among the audio books, so I was pleased to find it listed as "The Water Hole." Typically, I prefer a male narrator with a western drawl for Zane Grey westerns, but I am rethinking this opinion now. Christine Williams did a fabulous job, both with her smooth-as-glass reading and with her enjoyable characterizations Her voice reminds me of that warm and sultry voice you'd hear in the movies of the 30's and 40's, which I think is perfect for Zane Grey westerns, and this book in particular. The story is a little different from most of Grey's westerns, but it is thoroughly enjoyable. If you are a Zane Grey fan, or if you are looking for a western romance, you won't be disappointed.

Story is not ready for whisper sync.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I do not know if the book was good bad or indifferent since it was not ready for downloading-sorry, not ready for listening! This is a real rip off by audible!!!

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Do not know!

Would you be willing to try another one of Christine Williams’s performances?

Do not know? Was not ready to listen to.