Spoon

“An enormously engaging novel with characters who feel like old friends and a spirit as big as the West. From the opening paragraphs, you are in the hands of a master with the ability to evoke the grandeur of the still untamed western landscape and the folks whose lives are shaped by it. What a gifted storyteller Robert Greer is! Spoon is the kind of story you will remember.”—Margaret Coel, author of The Silent Spirit

“In Montana, a drifter rescues a family and their way of life before he moves on. It starts in late summer, it ends the following autumn, and the sweetness and melancholy of the seasons perfectly complement this classic tale of a cowboy, ranchers and big business, told with sweet humor and Western elegance.”—Marilyn Dahl for Shelf Awareness

His hat was a snow white Tom Mix block, and he wore it tipped forward just enough to shade his eyes. When I asked him what had happened to his shoes, he said, "Shoes can be excess baggage when a man's in a hurry."

A novel of the contemporary American West, Spoon tells the story of Arcus Witherspoon, a mysterious half-black, half-Indian, oddly clairvoyant man searching the West for his roots. Hitchhiking near Hardin, Montana, Spoon falls in with a ranching family struggling to keep their ranch afloat amidst the pressures of hard economic times and an encroaching coal company. Proving himself a gifted ranch hand and mentor, Spoon charges himself with rescuing the Darleys and guiding the family's teenage son TJ on his path to manhood. While Spoon's checkered past includes a prison stint and a navy tour of Vietnam, it is his tenacity, wisdom, and charm that end up defining this quintessential Western man.

Robert Greer is author of the popular CJ Floyd mystery series: The Devil's Hatband, The Devil's Red Nickel, The Devil's Backbone, Resurrecting Langston Blue, The Fourth Perspective, The Mongoose Deception, and Blackbird, Farewell, as well as two medical thrillers. He is a practicing pathologist and professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, and he owns a cattle ranch in Wyoming. Visit www.robertgreerbooks.com.

Contemporary novel set in the West featuring a compelling character who touches the lives of others.

Library Journal

In Big Horn County, MT, 1991, when a barefoot half-black, half-Native American hitchhiker wearing an expensive cowboy hat gets a ride from a teenager named TJ Darley, a friendship is born. The mysterious hitchhiker gives his name as Spoon, short for Arcus Witherspoon. TJ takes Spoon home to the family ranch, where he is hired as a much-needed extra ranch hand. Gradually, TJ and his hardworking parents become aware that Spoon has an uncanny talent for forecasting bad weather and trouble in general. They also learn that Spoon is a Vietnam vet with a prison record. However, he is a terrific worker and becomes a mentor to TJ. When a coal company threatens to tear up the neighborhood, the Darleys and Spoon are drawn into battle. VERDICT More about TJ's coming of age than the eponymous Spoon, this new novel by the author of the CJ Floyd mysteries (Blackbird, Farewell) vividly presents the realities of life on a cattle ranch. Larry Watson's Montana 1948 comes to mind as a readalike.—Keddy Outlaw, formerly with Harris Cty. P.L., Houston

Robert Greer is author of the CJ Floyd mystery series: The Devil's Hatband, The Devil's Red Nickel, The Devil's Backbone, Resurrecting Langston Blue, The Fourth Perspective, The Mongoose Deception, Blackbird, Farewell, and two medical thrillers. He is a practicing pathologist and professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, and he owns and operates a working cattle ranch in Wyoming.