The Devil's Lease
BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR SHIPPING ON NOVEMBER 26
Will Ennis rules his sprawling plantation empire on the Texas prairie by holding his petty and capricious fist over a mix of sharecroppers and leased convicts. George Purdy is a tenant looking for a fair shake. Trouble feels inevitable.
When murder inserts itself into the already brutal landscape, irascible defense attorney J.B. Duckworth aims to set things right, but the lawyer’s mercurial scruples do not always sit well with his peers in the legal community at the start of the 1900s. Though Duckworth is willing to face all comers, he often does so with an eye toward what plays well in the press. The ultimate question is what lengths Duckworth will travel to secure justice for his clients and what others will do to stop him.
If you enjoy richly human characters and enveloping drama, you will love this thoroughly American tale of our history’s heartbreaking tangles.
Praise for the Devil’s Lease
“Mike Vance has penned a meticulously detailed, utterly convincing story of wrongful behavior… peopled with colorful characters, vividly portrayed. This is historical fiction at its best.” -
Babette Fraser Hale, author of This Familiar Heart & Texas Institute of Letters award winner
“Vance writes with a well-honed sense of place, and his regional yet universal characters--like those of George Sessions Perry--are organic, borne of the soils and streets they trod. Truly an exceptional book.” -
Dan K. Utley, Historian & Co-author of From Can See to Can't and History Ahead
“Mike Vance’s new novel, with good characters, good pace and a heavy salting of historical accuracy, does a public service with his story of convict leasing.” –
James L. Haley, author of the Bliven Putnam naval series and Sam Houston
Notes: This is a paperback book. Sales tax and MOST shipping and handling is included in the price.