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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780380792429
ISBN number: 0380792427
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: August 01, 2000
Publishing house: Harper Perennial
Release Date: July 25, 2000
Sale Popularity Level: 450246
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Product Description:
James Carlos Blake is a masterful chronicler of the restless, outcast, the lawless, and the lonelyheart. His previous novel, In the Rogue Blood, was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. Now he has written a powerful and rousing historical saga of family loyalties, blood feuds, and betrayed friendships; of bank robberies and bootlegging; and of a passionate love as wild at heart as the Everglades. It is the story of sworn enemies: John Ashley, a criminal and folk hero, the brightest star in a family destined to become the most notorious in south Florida; and Bobby Baker, a lawman born of lawmen, a violent, hard-hearted man driven by the searing memory of past affronts and the enduring hatreds the engendered. Ashley and Maker will clash many times over many decades. And as the twentieth century encroaches on their world—and the wildlands give grudging way to the rising boomtown of Miami—a feral, sensual mating will place one man in gravest peril...while his adversary contrives a dark, personal vengeance that could leave countless lives—his own included—in ruin.
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Rated by buyers 
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I could truly say that this was one of the only books if that, which took me back in time. I actually felt right alongside John Ashley and his gang. I actually felt some of the same things he did, while at the same time I was mad and angry at the injustice that was done. I wasn't on anybody's side in this one, but boy was I hurtin to give John Ashley and his buddies a taste of their own medicine.
Rated by buyers 
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This is an excellent example of Blake's ability to spin a yarn mixing fact and probability to take a reader on a fantastic journey of surprise, shock, adventure, history, fact and a bit of fiction to glue it all together. This non-stop thrill ride takes you throughout Florida in the days when it was easy to get lost ten miles from the center of any city. In the centers of any of these cities it was easy to get away with murder or be murdered. Ride the highways, the swamps, the backroads; even the bounding main running rum. Keep your weapon handy, you'll need it.
Rated by buyers -
You could say I've been lost in the Florida everglades for the past few years but it's always a pleasure to discover a new author that one enjoys reading, even belatedly, and James Carlos Blake is such an author for me. His novel, Red Grass River, comes at you like a runaway freight train with non-stop action. There are fist-fights, knifings, stompings, gun battles, stalkings, bank robberies, truck robberies, smuggling and even some steamy sex for good measure. The shotgun and the BAR seem favorite weapons in Blakes's prohibition-era Florida. We watch the tenacious Ashley gang thrive and survive as bootleggers, bank robbers and rum runners. They are as good with the ladies as well as their fists and, as such, incur the emnity of the Bakers, a family of tough lawmen, in a decade-long feud. The reader is soaked in the atmosphere of Florida from 1911 to 1924. You can hear the mosquitoes buzzing in your ears, feel the sweat pouring off your skin, see the gators waiting in the swamp grass. People refer to Blake as as writer of historical fiction and certainly Red Grass River makes another time and place come alive. Girls, this is a great guy book and would make the kind of gift the manly man or would-be manly man in your life will appreciate. I give this one four gators out of five.
Rated by buyers -
Wow - If you like gritty historical fiction with a decidedly violent bent, this is for you. I've never written one of these reviews before, but felt compelled to. Blake's imagery is stunning, making the everglades come alive and drawing an astonishing picture of a tight-knit family of moonshiners, bootleggers, bank robbers and killers in early 20th century Florida, near the site where Miami is being carved from the swamp. The period details are great, and they blend seemlessly with the truly outstanding story. One of those rare books where both the plot and the writing are top notch. Can't wait to read Blake's other books.
Rated by buyers 
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This is the third of Blake's books that I have read. "The Friends of Pancho Villa" was a truly stunning performance, as I said in my earlier review on Amazon. I then devoured "In the Rogue Blood." I liked in nearly as much as the very first book, and that's saying a lot. Unfortunately. "Red Grass River", doesn't meet the very high standard set by the other two. Maybe because the others were so outstanding, I was expecting too much. This isn't a bad novel really. Blake is too fine a writer for that. But it is peopled with a collection of remarkably unlikable characters. As I got further into the story, I realized more and more that I didn't care about any of them. It wasn't only that they were unlikable, so are most of the characters in the great novels by James Ellroy. They were unsympathetic. I felt no tension, I didn't know what their goals were, and I didn't care if they made it or not. Frankly, I had a hard time finding a 'lead' figure in the story, someone to identify with and pull for. This book lacks passion. Oh, sure, it's full of action, adventure, and history, but it reads like a record of events. It has the feel that historical non-fiction sometimes has...a description without the feeling. That's strange from someone who painted "The Friends of Pancho Villa" with the rawest emotion and heart. James Carlos Blake is a fine writer, and I look forward to reading more of his work, but I recommend those who are new to his work start with "Pancho Villa" or "In The Rogue Blood." In my opinion, both are much better than this fairly unsatisfactory work.
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