John D. Nesbitt is a relatively prolific contemporary writer of Westerns, but DEATH AT DARK WATER is my first sampling of his work. It’s not bad and it’s a fast read, but it seems as if it’s a mainstream novel trying to break out of a Western shell.
Artist Devon Frost travels to the town of Tinaja on the New Mexico/Mexico border. All he wants out of his trip is the chance to visit Rancho Agua Prieta, because he’s heard that there are the ruins of an old Spanish chapel on the grounds. He wants to ask permission of the owner to go onto his property by day and sketch the place in preparation of going home and producing a painting.
Don Felipe is the landowner, having wed the widow of the previous owner, whose daughter, Petra, despises him. Although we never see Don Felipe putting any moves on Petra, the young woman is convinced that he would if he thought he could get away with it. She is also being pursued by her cousin and by a young man from a neighboring ranch. We think several times that Nesbitt will follow the trail laid out so many times by Max Brand and allow Frost to fall for her, too. I know, but I won’t tell.
One of Petra’s confirmed admirers is murdered on the ranch, and a mystery results. The thing is, the mystery is fairly weak as the choice of suspects is thin and nobody does anything that could pass for investigation. What’s worse for the reader of Westerns is that the book contains about as much action as a Henry James short story. Each day, Frost goes to the chapel and sketches; Petra visits him and invites him to the house for lunch; he goes and chats with her and her mother; he returns to the chapel; he goes to town and back to his hotel. That’s it.
The book is well-written and Nesbitt has a nice eye for the desert country of Southern New Mexico. Frost becomes an interesting character through his sometimes questionable friendships in town, but our interest in him doesn’t lead us anywhere.
I suspect Nesbitt is trying in this novel to bring some slightly more mainstream concerns to a traditional Western setting and plot — if I were more familiar with his work, I could say for sure — but the book seems pretty inert to me. When I read a Western, I want it to be more of a genre novel than this one is. —Doug Bentin
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The plot takes the breath away indeed. But why did John D. Nesbitt named his book DEATH AT DARK WATER. I don’t like it, sorry
Thank you for your review and for the comment. I don’t know if it is appropriate for the author to respond, but I thought I would do so, especially to answer Adriana Moore’s question.
First, though, I thought I would respond to the reviewer’s comments. In reviews of my other westerns, it is sometimes observed that I write westerns that do not fit the mold or that I write westerns that depend more on character than on plot, and I think those are fair descriptions. One reviewer said I write what could be called literary traditional westerns, and I think that describes me fairly as well. I try to fulfill the expectations of the genre, but I also try to do something within those parameters. Perhaps I do it more effectively with one novel than with another, but that is what I am up to, and I think the present reviewer is on track. One way to get an understanding of a not-very-difficult novel such as Death at Dark Water is to ask, what is this character looking for, what is his arc in the story? I think the answer to that question is pretty well spelled out.
Comparing my novel with a Henry James short story is a pleasant touch, and it is not the worst thing that could be said about character-driven fiction such as the novel at hand. However, I do think the reviewer will grant that Devon’s visits to Ramona are an improvement on Henry James’s asexual characters and that there is a little more in the story line than (as has been said of James) the drama of an afternoon walk and the tragedy of a broken teacup.
As for why I named it Death at Dark Water, I did so because the ranch where much of the action takes place is called (as the reviewer notes) Rancho Agua Prieta, or Dark Water Ranch, which is clearly explicated in the main part of the novel and which is clearly reinforced in the last words of the novel. Both deaths in the story take place on the ranch, so I thought the title was integral to the action. Also, the idea of dark water figures into what some readers might call the figurative or metaphorical aspect of the book, as the town is called Tinaja (which means a natural water tank), and there is a bit of attention directed toward water troughs as well as toward the artesian pool from which Rancho Agua Prieta takes its name. What the figurative meaning might be is up to the reader to think about or to overlook. At any rate, I thought I’d answer the question.
My thanks again to the reviewer and to the commentator for their interest in my humble little book.
Of course it’s appropriate for the author to respond, John. And I wouldn’t worry to much about the commenter’s dislike of the title. There’s certainly nothing wrong with it, and I strongly suspect her comment is spam.
Thanks, Rod. Nice to hear a word of encouragement. Thanks, also, for running a review of my work. I appreciate it.