Download The Wolves of Eden A Novel Audible Audio Edition Kevin McCarthy Peter Berkrot Audible Studios Books

Product details Audible Audiobook Listening Length 12 hours and 7 minutes Program Type Audiobook Version Unabridged Publisher Audible Studios Audible.com Release Date November 6, 2018 Whispersync for Voice Ready Language English, English ASIN B07K1Y8CTN

The Wolves of Eden A Novel Audible Audio Edition Kevin McCarthy Peter Berkrot Audible Studios Books Reviews

• Murder most foul has been committed in 1866 in a sutler's store at Fort Phil Kearny in the Dakota Territories. This is not such an unusual occurrence in the untamed west except that one of the victims has a relative high in President Johnson's administration. Justice must prevail with someone swinging from the end of a rope. Brevet Captain Martin Molloy and his Sargent Daniel Kohn are sent to investigate the murders.
  
  The tale is spun out as a written confession by Michael O'Driscoll, charged with the murders. The reader is beguiled by O'Driscoll's labyrinthian and lilting confession laced in Irish brogue. One wonders at the veracity of the testimony since the confessor may have kissed both the Blarney Stone and the neck of a whiskey bottle a time or two. This could be said too of his inquisitor, Captain Malloy who also hails from Ireland and loves the bottle to excess. In addition, the men share a past in the Civil War where they served and continue to suffer flashbacks of the war's horrors and losses. Men without much training and education, re-enlisted in the Regular Army after the Civil War and these recruits were shipped out west to fight in the Indian Wars. The author paints gruesome and violent scenes of Red Cloud's Wars of 1866-1868. At times his descriptions of the untamed scenery of the Dakota Territories border on poetry.
  
  McCarthy also sets the groundwork for what will eventually be the great "American melting pot." The reader meets a Quaker, Mennonites and a Jew, Native Americans of many tribes, Northern and Southern Europeans and especially, the Irish who fought bravely for the love and future of their adopted homeland. This work of historical fiction is a testimony to their bravery and well worth a read.
• Engaging combination of well researched historical fact and plausible fiction. The plot was skillfully presented through several beautifully developed characters. Very engaging and fun to read!
• It's rather surprising to see an Irish author write about the Indian battles in the West after the Civil War. McCarthy explains that by mentioning the high number of Irish soldiers who fought at the Battle of Little Big Horn, the Fetterman Massacre and other battles.
  
  This is really two stories in one. Brevet Captain Malloy and brevet Sergeant Kohn are sent to investigate who killed the sutler (general store owner) at Fort Phil Kearny. The sutler's relatives don't believe it was Indians. Malloy is a drunk; Kohn is an Indian hater; they hate him back. The other story involves the O'Driscoll brothers, Tom and Michael (this is a pseudonym necessary to rejoin the army after the Civil War, after trying to make it as farm hands). Tom was shot in the mouth during the war and has trouble being understood; he speaks mostly Gaelic to his brother who interprets for others. They met Malloy, who saved them for being branded as cowards for leaving the field of battle after Tom was shot. They meet up again at Fort Phil Kearny, although Malloy doesn't remember saving them.
  
  The fort is in the process of being built and the woodtrain goes out to cut and plane trees just about every day. Red Cloud's Sioux warriors are waiting in ambush. Nerves are raw as lots of soldiers are killed guarding the train. During their time off, they visit the sutler's house of ill repute. The Indian women who work there are “cut nose” prostitutes who were caught cheating. Tom falls in love with one of them and that leads to more murders. The description of what the Indians do to soldiers they capture is stomach-turning. McCarthy doesn't mention that scalping originated with French and English fur traders who put a bounty on Indians. Bounty hunters took their scalps as proof. One of the white Indian fighters also takes scalps.
  
  One of the minor characters is a photographer whose favorite models are the women who work at the sutler's den of evil. He bears no ill will against anybody including the sutler. It's not clear how he met his end.
  
  Michael is writing his explanation of what happened to Lt. Malloy, and we hear his voice alternating with that of Kohn throughout the novel. Malloy doesn't seem to care who killed the obnoxious sutler, and Kohn is obsessed with punishing the culprits.
  
  The novel has psychological elements. Tom was a good-looking man before he was wounded and is haunted by the war as is Lt. Malloy, who falls off his horse and breaks his leg, causing him to abstain from rot gut booze. As a reader, you want this man to see the light. It might be too late.
• A slow start, but then it became a can't put it down book. Told thru the eyes at times, of an Irish immigrant, I found myself reading that characters words with an Irish brogue. Very well written.
• Enjoyed the setting and the obviously well researched history. Good window into post civil war history in the west.
• Gripping, authentic read about Irish soldiers involved in a murder investigation as they fight for the Union Army in the campaigns against Native Americans.
• Wolves of Eden is one of the best books I’ve read.in a longtime. Great characters and a great plot
• I thoroughly enjoyed the reading of this book especially because of the mixture of languages and the way they made the speaker think about his situation