Thawed Out and Fed Up\t

In his sophomore novel, Brown (Play Dead) takes readers on another genre bending journey, this time through the desert of West Texas. Following the trend of other sci-fi westerns, a la Cowboys and Aliens, Brown puts his own spin on the hybrid genre with a kitschy book narrated in a relentless Texas twang by Sam Bonham, a modern day outlaw and deadbeat dad. After meeting his wife%E2%80%99s new boyfriend, Bonham wakes from a blind drunk with blood on his hands. He comes off as more pathetic than heroic when he runs from the law and, literally, comes to the end of the road before discovering an anachronistic old West town. Bonham is helped by a cryogenically frozen and defrosted John Wayne (a campy deus ex-machina), but too much of the novel%E2%80%99s forward thrust depends on Bonham correctly identifying the decrepit %E2%80%9CDuke.%E2%80%9D Brown slowly reveals the events of Bonham%E2%80%99s drunken night through his dreams and this obvious, but effective, propulsion presents the truth about Bonham. With self-awareness and a narrator who isn%E2%80%99t trying to be a hero, this brief, campy novel is charming. Your disbelief need only be suspended for the time it takes to quick draw in this rapid read. (Oct.) Agency: Side by Side Literary Productions, Inc.