RANDOLPH CARTER HARRISON
ABOUT WEST FROM YESTERDAY
West From Yesterday, a historically accurate Western epic by author Randolph Carter Harrison, is available now on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle! Order here!
There’s no turning back in Randolph Carter Harrison’s riveting debut novel, West from Yesterday, where one man’s flight from the past may cost him everything.
Tucker Clairborne’s world is shattered by the Civil War and its horrific aftermath when his father and brother are killed. Clairborne shuns centuries of tradition and leaves his family’s Virginia plantation behind in search of adventure - and himself - in the Wild West. This decision plunges Clairborne down a path where the fight to stay alive comes at all costs.
Dismayed by his own talent for killing, he reluctantly joins forces with an ex-slave who battles beside him against Comanche and the deadly forces of nature that define the world they enter together. But when Clairborne meets the woman of his dreams, will his personal demons, along with the pervasive violence of the land, prove to be too much?
An adrenaline-pumping ride through an unforgiving land, West from Yesterday brings the Wild West to life like never before.
About Author Randolph Carter Harrison
REVIEWS FOR WEST FROM YESTERDAY
"An inexperienced, formerly wealthy Virginian becomes one of the deadliest guns in the West in this debut novel.
As the story begins, Tucker Lightfoot Clairborne is abroad in France as his Confederate brother and father fight in the American Civil War. Following their deaths, he returns home to find that his family’s side has lost and occupies a much lower social station than before—their slaves freed, their properties less valuable. With only a few contacts, Tucker heads West and soon encounters an all-black unit of the U.S. military, which changes his perspectives on race and privilege. He befriends Sgt. Titus Herman, a recently discharged black soldier who teaches Tucker how to survive in the West.
Eventually, Tucker heads through Texas on a cattle drive and finds himself appointed a constable in rough-and-tumble Abilene, where he makes a name for himself as a deadly “shootist.” The novel features sections of third-person narration along with lengthy epistolary passages, including Tucker’s journal entries and letters to his mother. Harrison plays with the difference between what’s happening and what Tucker is willing to admit—including the fact that he’s become a killer.
The author develops Tucker’s sense of self particularly well, revisiting it at pivotal moments throughout the novel, as in one of Tucker’s letters: “I believe each time I took a life, there was no alternative, certainly not ‘turning the other cheek.’ I am not proud of this.” Although the lengthy novel could have done with some trimming, Harrison has an admirable sense of pacing and effectively describes the gunfights that punctuate the story.
Readers hoping to luxuriate in period detail will find a lot to enjoy here, but although the author clearly has a grasp of the period, the story always comes first. A slightly overlong Western, told in a confident, lively voice, that’s likely to please fans of the genre."
READER REVIEWS
"EXCITING. GRIPPING. REALISTIC."
"It almost didn't seem like a work of fiction. It reads like a true autobiography of a real person! I had to remind myself that this really didn't happen, but the way Harrison writes makes readers feel like it did.
I wanted to laugh out loud on many pages, which always seems a bit odd when you're reading a novel!
The gritty realism and violence is something that Harrison does exceptionally well — portraying what would have really happened in vivid detail. One moment you're enjoying a conversation with your friend, and the next moment you're in a gun fight.
Even if you don't like Westerns, this book is a highly enjoyable read. The characters are fascinating."
— Ben Le, San Diego, CA
"EXTREMELY WELL WRITTEN"
If you didn't know anything about the Wild West and picked up this book you would have an amazing understanding of the landscape, the people, the clothes and the weapons...like you're literally along for the ride!
Harrison describes and represents true life with no facade in West From Yesterday. It was like reading a great adult version of High Noon except in this epic Western there are no magical fixes and no hollywood endings.
I highly recommend the book to anyone.
— Joe Giorella, Issaquah, WA
"LONESOME DOVE MEETS RED BADGE OF COURAGE"
“An exciting story of the 1860s West with fascinating characters. Incredible dialogue, interwoven with golden threads of historical facts, enhance and move the storyline at a breathtaking pace.
West From Yesterday is the journey of a boy of privilege as he becomes a man of character and substance, wrapped around the story of 1860s America, from Virginia to St. Louis, to the Texas cattle lands, to the Great North.
Harrison masterfully transports us to an era when a man's word was enough, a man's good name, his character and integrity was more important than life itself."
— Ron Pedee, North Bend, WA
