Road to Reckoning

British author Lautner impresses in his debut with a crackling coming-of-age revenge tale set in the lawless wilderness of pre-Civil War Pennsylvania. 20 year-old Thomas Walker is accustomed to riding through the northeastern United States on door-to-door sales errands with his father, an early salesman of revolving pistols. When a gang of robbers shoot his father, leaving Thomas an orphan on the road, he begins a harrowing journey back to New Jersey to cash in his father's unredeemed sales commissions, armed only with his resourcefulness and a wooden sample model of the revolver. He soon meets Henry Stands, a bounty hunter headed toward Philadelphia in search of work. Despite Henry's reluctance, the two embark on a picaresque that eventually sees Thomas escape from a sinister orphanage in daring fashion and confront his father's murderers. Thomas recounts these formative events of his youth through the hindsight of adulthood with wisdom that makes him an appealing narrator with a knack for a poetic turn of phrase. The descriptions of the wilderness and cities of 19th century Pennsylvania feel particularly alive and specific. The grizzled, depressive nature of the Henry Stands character will undoubtedly draw comparisons to Rooster Cogburn, and the arc by which the two protagonists become friends is well-worn territory. Still the story is a comforting pleasure with many rewards. (Feb.)