Rachel Reviews: Death in the Tallgrass by Donald Willerton

I really enjoyed Death in the Tallgrass. Firstly, it is best that you know that I love any book which is set in the Wild West: in the days of the pioneers and settlers and their encounters with Native American tribes; with the stories of the less reputable white folk who find themselves down on their luck and trying to find a way to survive; where people looking for a new life or travelling to a better one were exposed on the plains and carried guns for protection and to use for hunting for sustenance. It is the perfect setting and environment for a tense tale of adventure. And that is what Willerton has created here.

Our hero is Harold Bonner, a privileged young man, training to be a lawyer, from St. Louis, Missouri. He lives a comfortable existence but embarks on an adventure after a conversation that he has with his mother which sees him leave his pampered home for Las Vegas in search of the truth about his kidnapped uncle and his supposed death. Was Sam really a victim at the hands of Comanche Indians? Or was he still alive somewhere?

Bonner believes himself worldly but he soon discovers that he has a lot to learn. He makes it to Las Vegas but on getting there, he finds himself on a quest for truth across the wilds of America with a young lady as his guide. It is tough in many ways, and Bonner is exposed to attitudes and dangers that he would never have encountered in the social circles of St. Louis.

Willerton adds an extra element when Bonner starts to dream about a native and lives this warrior's past experiences, giving Bonner a window into a world and lifestyle to which he would never be exposed. He sees its hardships, its savagery, its normalcy and I like the way that Willerton uses this to dispel stereotypes to show the humans behind preconceptions. Willerton also does this with Alice, Bonner's guide, who is originally called "Teats" in the text, labelled this because of her enormous chest but gradually, Willerton, through his depiction of Alice's interaction with Bonner, shows her as a person of worth for her skills and her ability to survive, rather than just a sexual object.

I really liked the way that Willerton drew his characters. His dialogue was realistic and there was no strain to his depiction of encounters, a clear picture being drawn of people, their motives and their personalities throughout.

Willerton also does not shy away from the violence that was present on the western frontier; there is one particularly brutal encounter in the book which made me wince as well as igniting a fury in me as a reader at the treatment of one of the characters, creating a keenness for justice to be administered that sat in my gut until it was addressed in the novel. Willerton also looks at how, as people, we create societal constructs to create order, like the laws of the land, but that these do not necessarily work for all of society, miscarriages of justice happening easily when the people who are given the positions to uphold the law are the main transgressors.

What could have been a bog standard Western adventure has a thoughtful thread throughout, which Willerton is keen to cultivate and which added depth to the world that he had created and the struggles of the characters.

Willerton ends his book with loose ends tied and brings to a close a tightly written, well-plotted novel with engaging characters, who grow and who, as a reader, you like and root for.

Rachel Rating: 4/5 stars

I was privileged to read this as an ARC and parts of this review were first published on Reedsy Discovery, link as follows:

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