The Outlaw Hearts
Jenny Colter, emotionally and physically scarred by the savage destruction of her family and home in Georgia, plans to start over as a schoolmistress in post-Civil War Missouri. En route, her train is robbed by outlaw Luke Morgan, who happens to be a folk hero in her new hometown. An unconvincing attraction develops between the respectable schoolmistress and the renegade; they marry, and with Jenny's help Luke predictably turns from crime to a political career. By defining the two-dimensional characters through narrative rather than action, best-selling author Brandewyne ( The Outlaw Hearts , Warner, 1988) fails to involve her readers' emotions. She uses Missouri history only incidentally, and her meticulous reproduction of slave dialect not only disrupts the narrative flow but appears condescending, weakening a potentially strong secondary love story between Jenny's servants. Not recommended.- Kimberly Martin, Washington Univ. Law Lib., St. LouisCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.