High White Sun

By: J. Todd Scott

Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith

Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

In this fiery and violent new sequel to The Far Empty, even though Sheriff Ross is dead and gone, outlaws still walk free, peace comes at a price, and redemption remains hard to find. 

Some things in the Big Bend never change. Sometimes we have to be wolves. 

In the wake of Sheriff Stanford Ross' death, former deputy Chris Cherry - now Sheriff Cherry - is the new "law" in Big Bend County, yet still struggling to escape the long, dark shadow of that infamous lawman. As Chris tries to remake and modernize his corrupt department, bringing in new deputies like young America Reynosa and Ben Harper - a hard-edged, veteran homicide detective now lured out of retirement - Chris finds himself constantly staring down a town unwilling to change, friends and enemies unable to let go of the past, and the harsh limits of his badge. 

But it's only when a local Rio Grande guide is brutally and inexplicably murdered, and America and Ben's ongoing investigation is swept aside by a secretive federal agent, that the novice sheriff truly understands just how tenuous his hold on that badge really is. And as other new threats rise right along with the unforgiving West Texas sun, nothing can prepare Chris for the high cost of crossing dangerous men like John Wesley Earl, a high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas and patriarch of a murderous clan that's descended on Chris' hometown of Murfee, or Thurman Flowers, a part-time pastor and full-time white supremacist hell-bent on founding his violent Church of Purity in the very heart of the Big Bend. 

Before long, Chris, America, and Ben are outmaneuvered, outnumbered, and outgunned -inexorably drawn into a nearly 20-year vendetta that began with a murdered Texas Ranger on a dusty highway outside of Sweetwater and that can end only with fire, blood, and bullets in Murfee's own sun-scorched streets. 

Welcome back to the Big Bend.

©2018 Jeffrey Todd Scott (P)2018 Recorded Books

Cannot Miss This

What a great sequel to the Big Empty. This is so well written and characters developed so lifelike that you feel you are right in on the plot and the action. The narration only adds to the book. I hope this new author has more to create for us. J. Todd Scott is on my “must always read” list.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great

Great story and extremely well read. Highly recommended, well worth reading, characters very well developed.

Thoughtful Writing Filled with Action and Suspense

Enjoyed High White Sun even more than I did Scott's first installment. His writing was thoughtful so that each turn of the action in this crime story was unpredictable and quite suspenseful. Characters were well developed and colorful background was included, explaining their personalities and roles, adding to the depth of the story. I listened to the book at a rate of one of two chapters at a time and found it easy to pick up the story where I had left off. The Narrator's skillful voice manipulation for each character added immensely to the listening experience. It was a great read!

Great, loved it as much as the "The Far Empty!

I've read it twice to make sure I haven't missed any of the plot, looking forward to more books from this author.

reader baffled by simple words

I listened to this book on the strength of the first one--in both cases, a good setting, interesting characters, a lot of skulduggery in a small town, decent pacing and a narrative twisty enough to be interesting but not so much as to lose me. I recommend it.
And the reader has a good voice and intonation, for the most part, but among the misses are many jarring moments that fling the listener (me, that is) out of the action to be focused on the mysteries of how an apparently literate person can be so unfamiliar with such basic words. The Spanish pronunciation is hit or miss--if he can pronounce some of the words correctly, why not all of them? These are basic Spanish words and phrases, and it's the easiest language to pronounce . . . but he seems to improvise each word in hopes he gets it right, without learning the fundamentals of hte alphabet.
Worse yet, though, is the reader's apparent unfamiliarity with many common words, words used to describe the setting, for example. His bungled reading of "butte" nearly made me send the book back, even though I wanted to hear what happened next. I mean, come on. ReallY?

One of the best books i've heard all year

I drive a lot and listen to audio books while I'm driving. I like crime/detective stories. This is @ the top of my list for the year and is better than his first book. The story brings us deeply into the lives of the bad guys and there's enough complexity with all the characters good and bad to grip the listener. Beyond the story the narration by T. Ryder Smith is A++. Changing accents and intonations from West Texas drawls to Mexican is outstanding. I highly recommend this book and the narrator.
Robert fleischman

Great story with wonderful cast of characters. <br />

Super story from beginning to end. My Malo bombers. A very graphic novel at all levels.

The next Cormac McCarthy...?

Comparisons are odious - particularly in the Arts. But J. Todd Scott is the best new author that I have read in a decade. His tone is stark, economical, with pitch-perfect dialogue. Cormac McCarthy does come to mind. Or Larry McMurtry. The characters breathe authenticity; the plot engages. What a pleasure to encounter great writing in this genre...doesn't happen often.
And T. Ryder Smith, as narrator, makes West Texas come alive - the right man with the right author.
Wish I had picked up, initially, Scott's first, "The Far Empty". But no matter. "High White Noon" stands quite nicely on its own.
It would appear that audio book fans have a new author with which they can't go wrong....