First published 2014
Sixteen-year-old Weldon Holland fires a shot through the back window of Clyde Barrow's getaway car after stumbling upon the notorious criminals following a robbery in 1934. The Depression grips the nation, but this encounter with Bonnie and Clyde marks only the beginning of Weldon's journey through violence and survival. A decade later, Second Lieutenant Holland and his sergeant Hershel Pine barely escape death at the Battle of the Bulge. In a liberated concentration camp, they discover Rosita Lowenstein, a young woman hiding among the ruins. Weldon and Rosita marry and return to Texas with Hershel to make their fortune in oil. The business brings them face to face with Roy Wiseheart, a guilt-ridden former Marine pilot, and his wife Clara, whose hatred of Jews makes her determined to destroy Weldon and Rosita. As these enemies close in, Weldon must draw on his grandfather's legacy of frontier justice and the wild lessons learned from his brush with America's most famous outlaws.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, adventure, thriller, action
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Battle of the Bulge, Texas, Concentration Camp
Period: 1934, 1940s
435 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster
Content warnings: violence