CROWS & CARDS
by Joseph Helgerson
(Houghton Mifflin)
Short version: Love the cover? Then read the book - the innards don't disappoint.
Long version: Take the premise of A Drowned Maiden's Hair, substitute a den of riverboat gamblers for the old-lady spiritualists, and you'll have a taste of the flavor of Crows and Cards. Unlike Maud from DMH, there's no question our hero's a naive, but Zeb stops shy of being a total noodlehead, and he's got spunk to boot. Even if he's mostly a chicken. Complicate things with a blind Indian chief with a gift for visions, a slave with a propensity for burning three meals a day, a medicine show, and an Indian princess, and you've got yourself an adventure Tom Sawyer'd be proud of.
Aside: Part of me halfway expected Chilly, with his flimflam schemes and notions of grandeur, to turn out to be the King or the Duke from Huckleberry Finn. No such luck, but it's a fun ride nonetheless.
(Available in April)
