The Hot Country

The Hot Country by Robert Olen Butler

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Christopher Marlow Cobb is a journalist assigned to cover Wilson's occupation of Vera Cruz in the spring of 1914 along with Jack London, Richard Harding Davis and others who were on the cutting edge of journalism at the beginning of the American century. Cobb has more on the ball than those hard-drinking legends of history and he runs across a beautiful Mexican sharpshooter, runs afoul of a German plot to weaponize the Mexican revolution into a distraction for America and runs cross country to meet Pancho Villa.

Cobb is an interesting character. His mother is a famous actress. He grew up on the stage. His view of the world remains that of an actor. He is accordingly a literate man of action.

And this really is an action-adventure, not a mystery. The plot motivations are laid out in the open, taking Cobb from Tinkers to Evers to Chance without much sidetracking. Along the way there is plenty of action, enabling Cobb to show his derring-do and the reader to become invested in his fate.

I particularly liked the historical angle as the author, Robert Olen Butler has Cobb interact with historical events and historical personages. I have a low tolerance for historical mistakes, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that Jack London - who does not have a “speaking role” unfortunately - was a reporter during the occupation of Vera Cruz. That surprised me because London died of a debilitating illness at age 40 in 1916.

On the whole, I enjoyed the story as a fun adventure. The plot was fairly shallow, and the ending was nigh on preposterous, but by that time, Butler had made his sale to me and I was willing to forgive it.

A good yarn. This novel is a display of the inventiveness and virtuosity of Robert Owen Butler, in that it is written in quite a different style than his earlier works.