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The Hot Country: A Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller Audiobook
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(3.02) - 98 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Christopher Marlowe Cobb (“Kit”), the swashbuckling early 20th-century American newspaper war correspondent, travels to Mexico in April and May of 1914, during that country’s civil war and the American invasion of Vera Cruz.
But covering the war in enemy territory and in sweltering heat isn’t enough of a challenge for Cobb. Soon, he’s falling in love with a young Mexican laundress, Luisa, who may not be as innocent as she seems, and he’s witnessing the inexplicable attempted sniper assassination of a priest (miraculously, the bullet rebounds off the cross around his neck, leaving him unharmed). Now Cobb is also trying to track down a sniper—and figure out why important German officials are coming into the city in the middle of the night from ammunition ships docked in the port.
An exciting tale of intrigue and espionage, Butler’s powerful crime-fiction debut is a thriller not to be missed.
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"From Pulitzer Prize winner Butler comes this exceptionally well-executed novel about a newspaper man caught up in revolutionary Mexico. Christopher Marlowe Cobb ('Kit') is a Chicago journalist living in the tumultuous time right before the First World War plunged all into total chaos and anarchy. Employing a young pickpocket to be his eyes and ears in Vera Cruz, Kit watches with the professional, removed nature of a journalist as the United States invades... then finds himself drawn into much larger affairs while investigating German activity in the area. Oftentimes in historical fiction , character (and even plot) can get lost while the author writes about "just how quaint everything was back then"; not so in The Hot Country, where setting is real without being overbearing. Furthermore, Kit is a thoroughly believable and fallible character whose wants, desires, and history serve as a major driving factor in the narrative. As Butler himself says, "If Ernest Hemingway and Indiana Jones had a bastard son, he would be Christopher Marlowe Cobb." Pancho Villa, Woodrow Wilson, and the fate of the world resting on the shoulders of one American journalist. Read this book. --Alex"
— Mysterious (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“This high-spirited adventure by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler is an antic concoction of genre clichés, literary sendups, personal homages, fanciful history and passages of great writing.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“It’s an exciting story, much of it based on fact, and Butler has a good time with it. His writing is both crisp and thoughtful, his people ring true, and he offers an amusing portrait of a golden age in journalism…The Hot Country is a thinking person’s thriller, the kind of exotic adventure that, in better days, would have been filmed by Sam Peckinpah.”
— Washington Post -
“Butler takes an often-overlooked chapter of history and turns it into a whip-smart tale of intrigue and espionage.”
— CNN.com -
“Enjoyable novel that should attract devotees of espionage and historical fiction.”
— Library Journal -
“A fine stylist, Butler renders the time and place in perfect detail.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Ray Chase’s characterization of journalist Christopher Marlowe Cobb sublimely captures his transition from war correspondent…to undercover operative.”
— AudioFile
Awards
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A 2012 Washington Post Notable Book for Fiction
The Hot Country Listener Reviews
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" Butler brings his brilliance and a likeable protagonist to Pancho Villa's Mexico. A fun read from start to finish. "
— Doc, 1/13/2014 -
" Pretty interesting story circa 1914. Pancho Villa, Americans, Germans in Mexico. Well written. Just not riveting. Creepy Oedipal Mother-Son relationship with main character. Eh. "
— Justin, 11/30/2013 -
" Probably 1 1/2 stars rather than two stars. Has some good moments, but really is a fairly standard example of genre fiction...almost like a all-boys story. A kind of American James Bond. Fairly derivative with occasional original touches. "
— Stefan, 11/24/2013 -
" Mistery and espionage during the Mixican revolution of 1914. "
— William, 10/7/2013 -
" Tiresome. Journalist who wants to write stream-of-consciousness novels bludgeons the reader with ubiquitous acting analogies. Thought good actors are supposed to be subtle. "
— Jerry, 6/25/2013 -
" Adventure story written by a Pulitzer winner -- quite a combination, but it works. "
— Tom, 5/20/2013 -
" The book was good, but not great. I did not like the run on sentences in the action segments. "
— Jerry, 3/9/2013 -
" I love me some Robert Olen Butler and after a slow start, I was hooked on Christopher "Kit" Marlowe Cobb and am already looking forward to his next adventure. "
— Cara, 1/27/2013 -
" This book started out OK, but got bad quickly. Very wordy and full of non relevant patriotic crap. The action was mostly familiar cliches. I skip read but it did not improve. Somehow I finished it but I don't know why. Too bad because the Mexican revolution and Pacha Villa is an interesting subject. "
— William, 10/26/2012
About Robert Olen Butler
Robert Olen Butler is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of more than a dozen novels, several story collections, and a book on the creative process, From Where You Dream. A recipient of both a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant, he also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and has received two Pushcart Prizes. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University.
About Ray Chase
Ray Chase graduated from the University of Southern California with a BA in theater and a minor in cinema and television. He has since worked extensively as a voice-over artist. Among his dozens of audiobook narrations are Ian Douglas’ Heritage trilogy and Robert Olen Butler’s Christopher Marlowe Cobb thrillers.