"ROAD TO RECKONING"--Author Robert Lautner's remarkable tale of a young boy's eventful journey through the American West of the early 19th Century and into a future of his own making

 
ROAD TO RECKONING: A NOVEL  by Robert Lautner
       

With taut prose and a swift plot, this literary crime novel set in 1800s Pennsylvania captures the unlikely friendship between a spirited young boy and a gruff ex-ranger on a shared quest for vengeance.


One does not travel the path to vengeance alone...


Twelve-year-old Thomas Walker has never left New York City. His father, a traveling salesman hoping to earn money by selling Samuel Colt’s recent invention, the “Improved Revolving Gun,” takes young Thomas with him on the road. But even the world’s first true revolver cannot save them from danger, and what starts as an adventure soon turns into a nightmare.


When his father is murdered, Thomas must rely on his own wits, courage, and determination, as well as a wooden replica of the Colt revolver, to protect himself. Luckily, an encounter with a surly ex-ranger, Henry Stands, leads to an improbable partnership, and the two set out in perilous pursuit of vengeance—that is, if they can escape the thieves who lurk around each trail, river, and road.
 

In the spirit of The Sisters Brothers and True Grit, this spare, elegant, and emotionally resonant story conveys, through a boy’s eyes, the pain of losing a father as well as the fascinating history of how the birth of the revolver changed the course of violence in America. Road to Reckoning offers a window into the history of the American West and the heart of a boy yearning for love.  


"This quiet triumph of a novel, a sad and impeccably nuanced tale set against a finely drawn landscape of early pioneer America, left me just amazed and delighted; it will surely establish Robert Lautner as a storyteller of the first order."--Simon Winchester, author of The Men Who United the States and The Professor and the Madman
 
 
“Remarkable … A novel about a young man reaching for manhood after the killing of his father and about the invention and selling of Col. Samuel Colt's revolving pistol, and the way it changed the West. Those who love True Grit will love this."--Michael Korda, author of Hero   


"Not a single needless word in ROAD TO RECKONING, a beautiful gem of a novel, exquisitely written and swiftly plotted. Set against a fascinating American landscape, with a heartbreakingly unforgettable character on a hero’s journey—it packs an old-fashioned emotional wallop."--KATHLEEN GRISSOM, author of The Kitchen House
   

ROBERT LAUTNER
       

     


Robert Lautner was born in Middlesex, England, in 1970. Before becoming a writer, he owned his own comic bookstore, and was a wine merchant, photographic consultant, and recruitment consultant. He lives on the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales, in a wooden cabin with his wife and children.