Hard Twisted, by C. Joseph Greaves, is a fictional account of an historical event. I guess that makes it "historical fiction." I've never really been much of a fan of historical fiction, but in this case, I was oblivious to to the fact that the book was based on a true story until the author's notes and acknowledgements at the end. Honestly, I didn't know much about the book at all when I decided to read it, I only knew that it was partly based in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl period, which is an era and a region that highly interests me. The author was inspired to write the book after finding several human skulls while hiking in a canyon in southern Utah. The skulls were of local Native Americans, but Greaves became interested in the murder of former Blanding (Utah) area sheriff William Oliver. The book revolves around the journey of his murderer and a young girl he essentially kidnapped and took with him on the road. The book's style is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy, although Greaves doesn't quite reach McCarthy's levels of avoiding punctuation, just the lack of quotation marks during the dialogue. Anyone interested in the history of this incident, as well as fans of westerns (I always enjoy an early 20th century story set in the west, as it paints a picture of two eras colliding, as the Old West becomes the New West), will enjoy this book.
More information on the book and the history behind it (spoiler alert) can be found here: http://chuckgreaves.com/hard-twisted/
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