CRIPPLED JACK

Crippled Jack is a revisionist western set against a landmark era in American folklore. Those were the years of poverty, homelessness and hatred between the classes. In that time when bloodthirsty violence ruled the day, a boy was bound and gagged and left to die in the desert. He was not yet nine and suffered what they called the palsy. there was a note pinned to his chest - It's up to God now. But the boy did not die. Fate and history merged in his will to live. He was found by a horseman, known as The Coffin Maker, who was at war with the profiteers of the day, the Czars of business, the lords of industry. The Coffin Maker becomes the star on the boy's horizon, and the boy will grow to become an expert marksman known as Crippled Jack who comes of age during the labor wars consuming the West and whose friends will be enemies of the state. He will come to love a woman who escaped the orphan trains and is a reporter covering the bloodshed sweeping the nation. Together they will usher in a new America. An America that has every intention of turning the country upside down, so that it may stand right side up. Those were the years of poverty, homelessness and hatred between the classes. In that time when bloodthirsty violence ruled the day, a boy was bound and gagged and left to die in the desert. He was not yet nine and suffered what they called the palsy. There was a note pinned to his chest--"It's up to God now." But the boy did not die. Fate and history merged in his will to live. He was found by a horseman, known as The Coffin Maker, who was at war with the profiteers of the day, the Czars of business, the masters of corporate avarice. The Coffin Maker becomes the star on the boy's horizon, and the boy will grow to become an expert marksman known as Crippled Jack who comes of age during the labor wars consuming the West and whose friends will be enemies of the state. He will come to love a woman who escaped the orphan trains and is a reporter covering the bloodshed sweeping the nation. Together they will usher in a new America. An America that has every intention of turning the country upside down, so that it may stand right side up.-- From book jacket