The Tentmaker

I read this book a few years ago, and it stayed with me for weeks. It's a tale filled with of violence and love, passion and frustration, stubborn willfulness and endless compromise, told masterfully by Reynolds. I'm going to buy a copy for my father (an avid reader of westerns) for his 87th birthday. I know he'll love it, too. I hope a movie is made from this one. I can see the redhead madam already...

Clay Reynolds struck a home run with this wonderfully enlightening book about turning a hopeless situation about a 1850's guy who's profession is a Tent maker that decides to go west and gets himself into trouble, fame and fortune and back. I've ordered over 10 of them and given them to friends..... Their opinion of the book is the same as ours....Wonderful. Jim

I have been reading Clays Reynolds' works since Franklins Crossing, and find each one to be even more enjoyable than the previous. I didn't just read The Tentmaker, I devoured it. The characters are well rounded, and truly breathe with a life of their own on the pages. I found myself identifying with Gil Hooley as if I had known him all my life. I could clearly see him throwing up his hands and yelling, "WHAT?!" with every encounter he had with Margot Phillips, the red-haired Madam. And as for Margot, she is without doubt the most vexing, stubborn, irritating, alluring woman I have seen in some time. I found myself laughing out loud each time she would browbeat Hooley into doing what she wanted, and then berate him for doing it with the next breath. Hooley is a man, who through the accident of fate, ends up becoming everything he has never really wanted to be. And as a result of this, is placed in the very uncomfortable position of having to defend what he never really wanted in the first place. And through his actions, he becomes a hero, albeit, a reluctant hero. This is a well written, and extremely engaging book. Whether or not you are a fan of Western Fiction, and if you never read another book of this genre, read this book. You won't regret it.

This is one of best tales I've come across in years. The hapless Gil Hooley is constantly trying to find a quiet place to read and smoke his pipe, yet the camp he established quickly becomes a settlement, and is determined to grow into a town. The poor guy, everything he says comes out wrong, so he is forced into situations that could have been avoided. Clay Reynolds has created a winner, not to be missed.