Dramatically-named Chicago reporter Christopher Marlowe Cobb chases a story of international intrigue while covering the US occupation of Vera Cruz during the Mexican civil war. I enjoyed the settings and the historical context - I'll admit that I didn't know much about that period of Mexico's history so the book had me running to the encyclopedia to freshen up on the basic facts. But I found myself frequently skipping pages upon pages of "action," some of which were rendered in an unpunctuated

The Hot Country is set during the American occupation of Veracruz, Mexico in the months preceding the First World War. Christopher Marlowe Cobb is a US journalist who becomes involved in trying to uncover some sinister German activity among Mexican revolutionaries. This is a very interesting time of which I was keen to learn more and the book is written with an obvious (sometimes a little over-obvious) depth of knowledge. Robert Olen Butler creates a fine sense of the time and place, but I’m afr...

I picked this book up off a price-reduced cart outside a San Francisco bookstore for something to read during down time on a business trip & on the flight home. I had gotten about halfway through it by the time I returned from that trip late last November, and I finished reading it today. Four months to read novel of average length. In the meantime I've finished reading perhaps 8 or 10 other books. Which is a roundabout way of saying that although I did not find The Hot Country an un-put-downabl...

I don't often like books that win big prizes like the Pulitzer or writers who win the prizes. Too often, I find that prize winning writers don't know how to tell a good story, that they are too in love with their own voice to put the story and the character first. So it was with some trepidation, despite being interested in the plot and setting of "The Hot Country," that I picked up Robert Olen Butler's book. My doubt was quickly dispelled. "The Hot Country" is a fast-paced historical thriller t...

Reporters aren’t often viewed as heroes these days. But in earlier times they often did rise to celebrity status and occasionally did become heroes.Christopher Marlowe Cobb is representative of the swashbuckling press corps dispatched to the hot spots of the world in the early days of the 20th century. In 1914 Cobb finds himself rubbing shoulders with the like of the real-life Richard Harding Davis and other correspondents in Mexico shortly after President Woodrow Wilson had dispatched troops to...

Politics, transportation, and informationThe story of Pancho Villa and his band of miscreant rebels seems timely mostly because of the behind the scenes meddling from other countries. The way Butler tells Pancho’s story it’s filled with mystery, excitement, cross and double cross. There’s also lots of history or perhaps revisionist history included. Don’t miss the parts about the current modes of travel. Of course there were horses and carriages and railways influenced the action. Most exciting

The early years of the twentieth century were a time of extraordinary upheaval. In China, first the Boxer Rebellion, then the 1911 Chinese Revolution. In South Africa, the Second Boer War (1899-02) and, across the globe, the Philippine-American War (1899-02) that came on the heels of the Spanish-American War (1898). In Russia, the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. The Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. And the First World War, of course. Meanwhile, King Leopold's minions...

This book is subtitled, "A Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller," but in truth it moves at a pretty languid pace until the last quarter of the book or so. That is not to suggest that it's a bad book by any means, only that it does not race along at the pace one would normally expect of a thriller.Christopher Cobb is war correspondent for a Chicago newspaper who finds himself in revolutionary Mexico, covering the American occupation of Vera Cruz in 1914. Mexico is a country in turmoil; President Wil...

This is the first in the series and I'm thinking it would be good to read this one first. This gives a lot of back story for what is to come. I don't know if the others need to be read in order, but I probably will. Unintended, this was sort of a serendipitous read for me, coming on the heels of Fall of Giants as it does. In that one, Ken Follett writes briefly about the US blockade of a German shipment of arms to Mexico in the days leading up to WWI. Mexico was in the midst of a revolution. It

Set during the American invasion of Vera Cruz, Mexico, this thriller is extremely well-written that echoes Cry, the Beloved Country with an action-twist.

This is the first book I've ever read by Robert Olen Butler. A couple of years ago I read a few excerpts from Severance in Tin House or some magazine like that, and I liked the pieces but thought they would get too gimmicky as a collection. This isn't really that important though. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've never read him, but I know that he has a reputation as being a good writer. He's won prizes and all. This book though. I don't know. It was probably a bad place to start. I r...

Well, I can’t say I’ve read an early 20th century historical fiction novel about the German influence on Pancho Villa to invade the United States before today, but now that I have, I’m left underwhelmed. A journalist is embedded in Vera Cuz, becomes way too close to the Villa story, and, of course, finds a way to go after the unpredictable Mexican deep into the backcountry. Sure, there are some snappy pieces of dialogue, but the author has this annoying style of writing un-Faulknereque run-on se...

I had chosen one of these Cobb "Thriller" books when I was at the library further down the road in the series. When I got home I looked it up and saw that the series is available on Kindle Unlimited so when I headed for the return train I dropped off the heavy book at the library with every intention of reading through the full series on my kindle.Then I read this one and now plan to return all the further books in the series. I don't find the protagonist appealing. Frankly he doesn't have the m...

Veracruz, Mexico circa 1914 is a very interesting setting for a historical thriller. Butler has written excellent books about serving in Vietnam and I did not know he wrote this series. He uses his skill as an evocative writer to make the city and it’s bodegas, trains, come alive in this book. The main character was not as well drawn, I liked him but didn’t have a fix on his abilities which seemed almost limitless. But this is a first in a series and I am likely to read more.

Florida State University professor Robert Olen Butler may be the last person you'd expect to write a thriller. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain," a collection of short stories about Vietnamese refugees trying to make a new life in the South, and his output since then has consisted of polished, interesting books such as "A Small Hotel," which recounted the dissolution of a marriage and its ramifications. As Tampa Bay Times book editor Colette Bancroft note...

I found this book to be slow moving for the most part, but there are sections that are really exciting. When Butler writes his fighting scenes, he puts you right into the head of the protagoist. And every once in a while he channels Hemingway, and these passages are sublime. I was not sure I'd want to read more by Butler, but his last chapter changed my mind. I will read the sequel in the Christopher Marlow Cobb series.

A fun little ride through the dry, hot world of early 1900s Mexico. You could call it a Western/Noir; as if the ghosts of Louis Lamour, Zane Grey, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler sat in with a Pulitzer Prize winning author like...well, like Robert Olen Butler. What you end up with is a narrative that gets inside your head like the rhythmic churning of the wheels of a steam-powered iron horse as it draws you closer and closer to a showdown with Pancho Villa in the middle of a tumultuous an...

Olen Butler tries something unique with this wartime spy novel set in Veracruz, Mexico in 1914. World War I was beginning in Europe, Mexico was experiencing armed insurrection as part of the Mexican Revolution, the United States occupied Veracruz after a diplomatic dispute, and Germans came to use money and influence with the Mexican government to encourage them to respond militarily to the U.S. Reporting on all this was “Kit” Christopher Marlowe, newspaper journalist and son of an aging Hollywo...

The Hot Country – Great Historical AdventureThe Hot Country by Robert Olen Butler is another Christopher Marlow Cobb “thriller” which according to The Washington Post is ‘A thinking person’s historical thriller’ and part of the literary thriller genre. Never have literary thrillers actually been that thrilling and the same can be said of The Hot Country. If this is a thriller then I am up for the Noble Prize in Literature next year. This is a good historical adventure which in places is stodgy b...