One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow by Olivia Hawker (2019 fiction)

At 479 pages, this seems like a long book, and when I first started reading it, I was not sure I would finish. However, the more I read, the more fascinating the story became. I did read the author’s notes first, and I discovered that Olivia Hawker wrote about her own family, which makes the story even more interesting. It takes place in Wyoming in 1876. The Bemis and Webber families have adjacent farms that are far from the nearest town. When Ernest Bemis finds his wife Cora in a compromising position with neighbor Substance Webber, he shoots Webber and is arrested and put in jail. This leaves Cora alone with her four children. Likewise, Nettie Mae Webber is also alone with her teenage son Clyde. For obvious reasons, the women want nothing to do with each other, but with winter approaching, it becomes apparent that they and their children will have to hang together or perish. I found this to be a mesmerizing and entertaining book, not only in terms of the family dynamics, but also in the detailed descriptions of the farming operations and the natural surroundings.

Reviewed by Ginger Russell