Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Bull Mountain; Brian Panowich

Bull Mountain; Brian Panowich
Recorded Books - 2015
(read by Brian Troxell)

Bull Mountain is a debut novel that I had passed on at first glance but, after reading several rave reviews I decided to give the audio a try.  It's very gritty yet so well written.

Set in Georgia, the story focuses on the lawless Burroughs family who for generations have been the kings of Bull Mountain, pretty much doing whatever they pleased. They sold moonshine, weapons, pot and now meth. Halford (Hal) is the elder brother who continues in the illegal operations following in his family's footsteps.

Clayton Burroughs, Hal's younger brother, took a different path after getting married, he is a county sheriff.  Clayton is torn between doing what's right and betraying his family.  Somehow the brothers have managed to stay out of each others business up until now but, when an agent from the Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco and Firearms asks Clayton for his help things heat up.  The ATF want's Hal's help to shutdown a large scale gun and drug running operation out of Florida.

This story was very different from the kind of stories I'm usually drawn to. It's gritty with a lot of violence.  There are quite a few characters but, even on audio it was fairly easy to differentiate between them.  There were some unexpected twists in this story which surprised me as well.  I must say that the heavy accents were a bit rough at times so I listened to this one in shorter segments than I normally would.  I think if I had it to do over, I would have chosen the print version. Panowich is a talented new author to try. 

4/5 stars
(library audio)

8 comments:

  1. I can see how this would have been a little tough on audio. And nothing worse than a badly portrayed Southern/mountain accent!!

    The print version was phenomenal!

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    1. Had it not been for your glowing review, I would have passed. I do wish I read the print version.

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  2. I've seen the great reviews, too, and have been considering this book. Guess print would be the way to go - thanks for the advice.

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  3. When I saw the title, I knew this had to be set in the south. I'm listening to a sample now but there's not much accent on the portion they selected.

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    1. Maybe readers from the South will find the narration easier than I did.

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  4. It does sound like a gritty story. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Diane!

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