Hunter's Trap

When first published in hard cover, C.W. Smith’s Hunter’s Trap was praised by Kirkus Reviews as a "Beautifully bitter Depression-era revenge melodrama in which good guys lose, good women die, and virtue's reward is unreasonable tragedy." The novel, set in El Paso in 1930, follows on Smith’s highly praised Buffalo Nickel both as a sequel and a stand-alone noir-ish thriller in the mode of James M. Cain and Jim Thompson. Believing that his late wife was collateral damage in a greedy plot to murder an oil-rich Kiowa, Wilbur Smythe arrives in town under an alias of Will Hunter to track down the banker responsible for her death and sets about to avenge it by kidnapping and torturing someone dear to the story’s arch-villain. Intricately plotted and told with a spare but lyrical style that far transcends that of pulp formula fiction, the novel “gradually unfolds against the divergent cultures of Oklahoma and Texas oil country, the Mexican border town of Juarez and Hollywood during the Roaring Twenties. Shadowy images of good and evil, undercurrents of bigotry, greed and betrayal emerge from the loosely linked vignettes that make up the narrative.” The plot “moves inexorably to a stunning irony on the final page.” (Publisher’s Weekly) In this new epub edition "Smith's novel offers an evocative exploration of the values and character of a time, a place, and a man.…Here's hoping that many readers come to know this skillfully wrought tale…." (Booklist)

When first published in hard cover, C.W. Smith’s Hunter’s Trap was praised by Kirkus Reviews as a "Beautifully bitter Depression-era revenge melodrama in which good guys lose, good women die, and virtue's reward is unreasonable tragedy." The novel, set in El Paso in 1930, follows on Smith’s highly praised Buffalo Nickel both as a sequel and a stand-alone noir-ish thriller in the mode of James M. Cain and Jim Thompson. Believing that his late wife was collateral damage in a greedy plot to murder an oil-rich Kiowa, Wilbur Smythe arrives in town under an alias of Will Hunter to track down the banker responsible for her death and sets about to avenge it by kidnapping and torturing someone dear to the story’s arch-villain. Intricately plotted and told with a spare but lyrical style that far transcends that of pulp formula fiction, the novel “gradually unfolds against the divergent cultures of Oklahoma and Texas oil country, the Mexican border town of Juarez and Hollywood during the Roaring Twenties. Shadowy images of good and evil, undercurrents of bigotry, greed and betrayal emerge from the loosely linked vignettes that make up the narrative.” The plot “moves inexorably to a stunning irony on the final page.” (Publisher’s Weekly) In this new epub edition "Smith's novel offers an evocative exploration of the values and character of a time, a place, and a man.…Here's hoping that many readers come to know this skillfully wrought tale…." (Booklist)

C.W. Smith is the author of nine novels, a collection of short stories, and a memoir. Aside from a long career in teaching, he has worked as a musician, a newspaper reporter, an oil field roustabout, a paper delivery boy, frame carpenter, and roofer. When he's not teaching and writing and reading, he likes to be in his kayak or on his bike accompanied by his wife, Marcia. He has twice received the Jesse H. Jones Novel Award from the Texas Institute of Letters; the Southwestern Library Association Award for Best Novel; the Dobie-Paisano Creative Writing Fellowship from the University of Texas; National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships in 1976 and 1990; the Texas Headliner's Feature Story award; the Frank O'Connor Memorial Short Story Award from Quartet magazine; the John H. McGinnis Short Story Award from The Southwest Review; a Pushcart Prize Nomination from The Southwest Review; Special Merit Award for Feature Writing from the Penney-Missouri Foundation; the Stanley Walker Award for Journalism from the Texas Institute of Letters; an award for Best Nonfiction Book by a Texan in 1987 from the Southwestern Booksellers Association, and an award for Outstanding Book of the Southwest from the Border Regional Library Association. The Texas Institute of Letters named him a Lon Tinkle Fellow for "sustained excellence in a career," and gave him the Kay Cattarulla Award for Best Short Story of 2009. He belongs to PEN, The Authors Guild, Writer's Guild of America West, and the Texas Institute of Letters. The author may be contacted through his Facebook page or his website: https://www.facebook.com/CWSmiththeauthor http://cwsmiththeauthor.com