Bonnie and Clyde Dam Nation – My Review

DAM NATION

 

Bonnie and Clyde #2

by

CLARK HAYS AND KATHLEEN McFALL

Genre: Historical / Alternative History / Romance 
Publisher:  Pumpjack Presson Facebook

Date of Publication: March 24, 2018

Number of Pages: 266Scroll down for the giveaway!

 

Bonnie and Clyde: Defending the working class from a river of greed.

The year is 1935 and the Great Depression has America in a death grip of poverty, unemployment, and starvation. But the New Deal is rekindling hope, with federally funded infrastructure projects, like Hoover Dam, putting people back to work.  Set to harness the mighty Colorado River for electricity and irrigation, the dam is an engineering marvel and symbol of American can-do spirit. 

So, why is someone trying to blow it up?

When an informant on the construction site is murdered, Bonnie and Clyde—spared from their gruesome deaths and forced into a covert life working for the government—are given their second assignment: stop the bomb and protect the thousands of laborers and families in the company town. It’s their most dangerous mission yet: working for a living.

 
Can the notorious lovers put aside their criminal ways long enough to find out who wants to extinguish the American dream, and hopefully reclaim a shred of redemption along the way?

 
The thrilling story cuts back and forth between the modern era where a reporter interviews the now-elderly Bonnie Parker, and the dangerous 1930s undercover exploits of Bonnie and Clyde, as they are thrust into a fight to defend the working class against corporate greed.

 

Dam Nation, a historical thriller with unsettling contemporary parallels, continues the explosive “what-if” series, started in Resurrection Road, about two unlikely heroes fighting to defend the working class during America’s Great Depression.

 

 

PRAISE FOR BONNIE AND CLYDE: DAM NATION:

Crisply written, well-researched, thoroughly entertaining. As in Resurrection Road, Hays and McFall evoke time and place well in this sequel. The story’s politics are fresh and timely. Readers will find Bonnie and Clyde to be great company, and the novel’s framing story (the widowed Bonnie’s 1984 recollections) gives their relationship an extra layer of poignancy. 

— Kirkus Reviews

 

“Dam Nation” highlights the real-life turmoil of the 1930s as only Hays and McFall can — shadowy intrigue, plenty of suspects and enough behind-the-scenes and under-the-covers action to keep the narrative sizzling along to the final page. 

— East Oregonian

 

A rollicking good read. The real history of the rise of unions and worker rights against the backdrop of a nation recovering from the Great Depression contributes an engrossing, realistic scenario; a vivid read that blends fiction with nonfiction elements in a way that makes the book hard to put down. 

— Midwest Book Review

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CHECK OUT THE TRAILER FOR RESURRECTION ROAD, BOOK ONE IN THE BONNIE AND CLYDE SERIES:

Book One Trailer

Bonnie and Clyde Dam Nation – My Review

“Hours later, the desert sun began to sink and brilliant oranges and pinks lit up the cloudless sky. Dirty, tired and hungry, Clyde slid up the canyon wall inside the crowded cable car, eager to see Bonnie.”

Where do I begin with this review?

First, I’ve been eagerly looking forward to reading the next book in the reimagined history in the Bonnie and Clyde series. The first book, Resurrection Road helped me end 2017 with one of the best books I’d read that year.

Second, let me state Bonnie and Clyde Dam Nation is a beautiful book to hold. The cover is nice and thick, along with paper inside.

Third, this story is even more intriguing with its twists and turns than the first book in this series by Authors Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall.

Now comes my OMG! The book takes up right where the first book ended with Bonnie and Clyde. This time the reimagined history of the famed couple takes them to Boulder City to find out who is behind sabotaging the Boulder Dam. Deaths and several other accidents have occurred and the government wants the couple to find out who’s behind it. What entails is a lot of broken alarm clocks, unscrupulous men, corrupt lawmen, and good people looking out for others down the road. That’s not to mention the man who reportedly shot Bonnie and Clyde in Louisiana and tracks them down to Boulder City.

The most intriguing part of this book and in the first book for me is the weaving of the current story with Royce, the Lubbock, Texas reporter who was contacted by Bonnie to write the true story behind what really happened to Bonnie and Clyde. I love doing research and this truly connects with me. Part of Royce’s research journey was finding out who the couple was in the car that was killed instead of Bonnie and Clyde. In Dam Nation, the most touching part of the book is when Bonnie confronts the woman whose sister was killed in Bonnie’s place. As the story progresses with Royce’s research, unknown men are now trying to kill him and possibly Bonnie.

As a side note, I am starting to wonder what the connection to Lubbock, Texas is with the authors. Some of the descriptions are very dead on, like with Clapp Park reference from this book.

Dam Nation took me deeper into unimaginable twists and turns that I did not see coming. That’s what is so great about the writing style and story by these authors. Hays and McFall still can deftly weave together present and past timelines that kept me engaged in the story without falter.

The reimagined history is taken to another new level of what could’ve been with these notorious outlaws that were either loved or hated.
Next book, please! Thanks, Clark and Kathleen for creating a beautiful, crafted, well-written memorable story. I hope to meet them someday to autograph my books. Now, I’ll anxiously await the next book in the series to discover what happens next to Royce and Bonnie, as well as how Clyde met his final end. Because often fiction is way better than reality.

Clark and Kathleen wrote their first book together in 1999 as a test for marriage. They passed. 

 

Dam Nation is their sixth co-authored book. 

 

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