I actually rather liked Vernon Tyler, not because he’s hero material (he’s not), but because his sins are well within the realm of reality, rather than cartoonish. There’s Vernon Tyler, who not only needs Peachtree so he can run a railway through the area, but also wants comeuppance on the town (who scorned the poor “white trash” boy) and Olivia (whose father refused his suit many years ago). The course of love runs rather roughly for these two. Which he does, when Olivia spies Conor on the road, and takes him home to mend his ribs. But when her farmhand died last year, the chores became an increasing burden, and she won’t be able to harvest the peaches unless God sends her some help. These are now Olivia’s sole source of income, which she managed to harvest each year with the help of an old farmhand and her three adopted daughters. Without her enslaved workers, what was a thriving plantation has dwindled to a grove of peach trees. Olivia Maitland is now the only Maitland left at Peachtree – illness, war, alcoholism, and depression took her two brothers and parents over the years. Thirty seconds later, Tyler’s men beat Conor to a pulp and leave him on the road.
So he beats the local fighter and walks away with twenty-five dollars.
But Conor has a streak of defiance and stubbornness a mile wide, and he has nothing to lose. His boxing manager tells him that the man running the prizefight, Vernon Tyler, owns pretty much the whole town, and would take it very badly if the home boy lost to an Irish immigrant, and lost Vernon a whole heap of money. It is 1871 in Callersville, Louisiana, and Conor is about ignore some good advice. This is the standard for American historicals. Well, for once you can believe the hyperbole and buzz. Guhrke released this tale of an Irish boxer and a Southern lady electronically, and I finally read it a few nights ago after hearing amazing things. For years this 1996 RITA winner has been out of print, but last year Ms. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Thank God for digital publishing, and authors willing to make the transition.
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