Synopsis:
Texas hill country, 1868. As nineteen-year-old Benjamin Shreve tends to business in his workshop, he witnesses a stagecoach strand a passenger. The man, Dickie, is a treasure hunter and persuades Benjamin to help track down the vanished coach . . . and a mysterious fortune left aboard. Benjamin is drawn into a drama the scope of which he could never have imagined.
When they locate the coach, they discover that its passengers include Nell, a pregnant young woman, and her four-year-old son, Tot, who are fleeing Nell’s brutal husband, his murderous brothers, and their domineering, scheming mother.
Having told the Freedmen’s Bureau the whereabouts of her husband’s gang — a sadistic group wanted for countless acts of harassment and violence against Black citizens — Nell is in grave danger. If her husband catches her, he will undoubtedly kill her and take their son. Learning of their plight, Benjamin offers to deliver Nell and Tot to a distant port on the Gulf of Mexico, where they can board a ship to safety.
He is joined on the chivalrous journey by Dickie, the treasure hunter, whose stranding began the endeavor, and a restless Black Seminole who is a veteran of wars on both sides of the Rio Grande and has an escape plan of his own.
Fraught with jeopardy from the outset, the trek across Texas becomes still more dangerous as buried secrets, including a cursed necklace, emerge. As Benjamin falls in love with Nell and imagines a life as Tot’s father, vengeful pursuers are close behind.
Told in Benjamin’s resolute and unforgettable voice, his adventure is full of eccentric action, unrelenting peril, and droll humor. In The Madstone, Nell, Tot, and Benjamin share a hazardous and defining journey that will forever change and bind them together.
Review:
Author Elizabeth Crook grew up in Nacogdoches and San Marcos, Texas, until her family moved to Washington D.C. when she was seven years old. Following her father’s stints as the Director of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA, now AmeriCorps VISTA) and Ambassador to Australia, they returned to San Marcos. She attended Baylor University and graduated from Rice University. She knew from a very early age that she wanted to be a writer, giving her mother credit for having bestowed a “great gift” upon her and her brother by reading to them “for hours every night, long after we could read for ourselves. Those nights of listening transported us to foreign places and other centuries and allowed us to connect with characters living lives in stark contrast to our own.” She was also influenced by a family populated with writers, storytellers, educators, and journal-keepers. In addition to publishing five previous novels, Crook has written for periodicals and co-authored the screenplay for the upcoming film adaptation of her novel, The Which Way Tree. These days, she resides in Austin with her family.
The Madstone was inspired by Crook’s desire to write about Benjamin Shreve again. He first appeared in The Which Way Tree at the age of seventeen. Crook says she wanted to “age him up a little bit and give him a chance to have a first love and [let readers] see the world through his eyes for a longer period of time.” She finds him an “endearing character” – as will readers of The Madstone — and “missed him” after she finished writing that prior novel.
The Reconstruction era began with the end of the Civil War in May 1865, and continued until the Compromise of 1877. Americans were rebuilding infrastructure, struggling to unify a fractured republic and reintegrate the states that seceded, and move past the destructive social, political, and economic impacts of slavery. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed, granting equal civil rights to all persons, but it was a turbulent time characterized by denial of rights to and ongoing violent attacks against Blacks, particularly in the South. While researching the period, Crooks learned about the Swamp Fox (depicted in The Madstone) and other gangs that preyed on Freed men and women, and government representatives from the Freedman’s Bureau (part of the U.S. Army, established by President Abraham Lincoln but later disbanded due to corruption). The gangs hid in the swamps, emerging to commit atrocities.
The story opens in Comfort, Texas, in November 1868, and is presented in the form of a letter written by Benjamin to Tot, Nell’s son. Benjamin explains that he wants to tell Tot about the days they spent together but the letter will not be delivered to Tot until he is nineteen – Benjamin’s current age. Benjamin recognizes that Tot is not likely to remember all that occurred, and certainly not from the same perspective as Benjamin, who is “bound to remember these days I write about until the reaper should come fetch me.” After a brief introduction, Benjamin relates what happened earlier that year in what Crook calls a “linear” manner as her characters travel from one place to another and “many, many things happen along the way.”
Benjamin describes his work as a carpenter, crafting household furniture, and renting a room in a German widow’s home. Working in the yard, he observed a stagecoach stopped across the street with Tot and his mother, Nell, inside. He also witnessed a dispute between the sheriff and a male passenger that culminated in the traveler’s arrest. Not long after, a rider recklessly charged into town from the same direction the coach had arrived on a horse that “was badly lathered and winded.” He seemed desperate to find a new horse to continue his journey, but the livery had none to offer nor did Benjamin. In frustration, he “mounted his spent roan, set spurs to it and rode off” just as the first passenger appeared and began yelling at the stable boy that one of his bags was not left behind when the coach departed without him. He, too, was looking for a horse and Benjamin decided there was something trustworthy about him. Although Benjamin had no intention of letting the man take off riding Benjamin’s only horse, an old mare, he agreed to take the man as far as Boerne, where he might find another horse, for a fair price. The man was carrying a pouch that appeared to be full of gold pesos like the one he showed Benjamin.
So the two of them set out to catch up with the coach, “at the usual pace for my mare, which is not a fast one.” Unbeknownst to Benjamin at the time, he was embarking on an adventure that would last longer than anticipated, take him further from home than planned, and forever change him. Along the way, Benjamin and his new companion, Richard Dean Bell, aka “Dickie,” a treasure hunter on his way to Indianola to board a ship to New Orleans, find themselves in a variety of unexpected and dangerous predicaments.
First, they encounter the rider, now barefoot and shirtless, walking along the road. He had been robbed and beaten, and Benjamin agreed to take him to Boerne, as well. Following an argument, the man tried to strike Dickie with a hammer he pulled from Benjamin’s toolbox, but missed and struck Benjamin’s mare instead before toppling out of the wagon and hitting his head. Hauling the injured man back into the wagon, Benjamin proceededed while Dickie talked incessantly, relating tales of his travels and treasure hunts.
Eventually, they come upon the coach being held up by the same robbers who attacked the rider. And Dickie spies his missing bag. Shots are fired, and the rider is killed. Soon, Benjamin and Dickie continue their journey with Nell, Tot, and the stagecoach driver joining them, and the rider’s body secured in the back of the wagon to be delivered to the undertaker in Boerne after questioning by the marshal. Nell insisted that her husband “had gone broke from the war and run off and left her to raise their son and the baby yet to be born” any minute. Tot told Benjamin that his father no longer lived with him and mother, and was instead living with a big swamp fox.
At last, their trip proceeds and the identity of the dead rider is revealed. Benjamin learns that Nell is running not just from her husband, but his family, as well. She is determined to reach Indianola and also board a ship to New Orleans where she and her children will be safe with one of her relatives. The matriarch of her husband’s family is a vile, conniving woman who controls and directs their violent gang activity. Nell could no longer remain silent in the face of their criminality and informed law enforcement of their activities and whereabouts. Now she and her children are in danger because her husband’s brothers are in hot pursuit, ordered by their mother to kill Nell and kidnap Tot so he can grow up to join their gang.
Crook says when she learned about the gangs, she pondered what it would be like to be in Nell’s shoes. She knew terrible crimes were being committed, but women had few rights, especially when it came to raising their children. Crook wanted to explore the point at which a woman in Nell’s situation would be able to muster the courage to turn in not just her own husband, but his whole family, with the certainty that she would be subjected to retribution. Nell provides information to the sheriff, in part, because “her own sense of guilt catches up with her” concerning one particularly heinous incident. She has no choice but to run because she cannot permit Tot or her unborn child to be raised amid or by such monstrous criminals. That, being the “most threatening thing to a mother,” provides Nell’s motivation and she will do anything to protect her children. She could not have foreseen that she would encounter and be aided by Benjamin, and their relationship deepens quickly during the few, fraught days they spend together. Crook, writing in Benjamin’s voice, describes his growing feelings for Nell in a believable and tender manner. Benjamin is hardly more than a boy himself, but he realizes he is forming a strong bond with Nell, and he is capable of being and wants be a loving father to both Tot and Nell’s yet-to-be-born child. As the fast-paced story proceeds, Benjamin matures and reveals himself to be principled, quite bright, and loyal, especially to the sister he has sworn to wait for at home and still believes might return.
Despite the precarious situations in which her characters find themselves – and there are many tense moments when Benjamin and the other characters must quickly devise strategies to outwit their pursuers, as well as the elements, to survive — Crook has deftly crafted a narrative that is filled with humor. Benjamin’s descriptions of his adventure, and reactions to the people he encounters and challenges he withstands, are frequently hilarious which, from Crook’s perspective, is because he has no idea he is being funny. He merely offers his observations (phonetic spellings included), recounting the complications and setbacks along the way, recalling his fears as the gang chases them across Texas, in a straight-forward, unembellished, and often naïve and awestruck manner. Crook aptly describes him as very “earnest, sincere, and dutiful,” noting that he is just trying “in an honest way to relate the story.” Crook’s understanding of her character, and skillful demonstration of his indomitable spirit and determination to keep himself and his companions safe, makes the story riveting and readers will find themselves taking Benjamin into their heart, and cheering for his mission to succeed.
The book’s title? In American folklore, a madstone was a rock or other object believed to have the power to draw poison out of a bite from an animal when pressed into the bite after being soaked in milk. Madstones were treasured because they represented and offered hope at a time when there were no medical cures for rabies, venomous snake bites, etc. The title was selected because one such magical object comes into play at a turning point in the story, according to Crook.
The Madstone is delightfully entertaining and evocative of classic, beloved Western novels, films, and television programs, replete with perilous situations, shocking revelations, an eclectic cast of fascinating and memorable supporting characters, and even secret treasure and a legendary curse.
But it is also an emotionally rich and thought-provoking story of bravery, the power of a courageous mother’s devotion to her children’s futures, and multiple literal and figurative journeys, including Benjamin’s journey to manhood and what he learns about the world beyond Comfort, Texas, and the people who inhabit it. Benjamin gains a deeper understanding of honor and the importance of keeping promises, and finds the first love Crook wanted him to experience . . . as well as so much more. It’s understandable that Crook missed Benjamin and describes him as her favorite out of all the characters she has created during her career. Hopefully, Crook will reunite readers with him and, perhaps, Tot, when both are a bit older and certainly wiser, in a future novel.
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