I loved the picture the author painted of the West, particularly during this time period. It was fascinating to learn about this time in the United States. His characters came alive and the stories were timeless. Good read. ( )

Val Welch is an artist charged under the WPA Act to paint a mural on the post office wall in Wyoming. Here he meets big rancher John Long and his wife Eve, who he has recently married and a woman who has a history as a cowboy singer, a hobo, and a no good ex husband. John has several paintings by artists such as Renoir and Eve unexpectedly takes off with one of his favorites. John has ambitions to run as governor or senator of the state and doesn't want any kind of scandal so he hires Val to find Eve. The quest takes him to Seattle where he finds a clue about the ex-husband, Jake, whose family lives in a swamp in Florida. Val takes his first scary airplane ride to Tampa and finds the even more scary Olson family.

The story moves from Wyoming, to Florida, to Seattle, and to San Francisco to dive bars, fancy hotels, and places in California. There are interesting characters along the way, a bit of humor, a believable plot, and a satisfying ending. All in all, a good read. (Liked it much better than Cold Mountain). ( )

I really became attached to "Val"---the painter of the post office mural and describer of what happened during this three month period Frazier describes so beautifully---using colors in life to enhance the telling. In some ways the story seems long and drawn out but as the reader, I wanted to know what Val was thinking and doing and that's where we are, page by page. I loved Cold Mountain...this is the same writing---clear and descriptive. The historical aspects of this entire book were a wonderful help in trying to place this story in time. ( )

I knew of Charles Frazier as the author of the best-selling novel Cold Mountain as well as a book I liked even better, Thirteen Moons. Those aren't his only two others, but they were the two I knew of. The Trackers is another work of historical fiction, this time taking place in the later stages of the Great Depression. Valentine Welch is a young artist, recently graduated from college, who, through the auspices of his college professor and mentor, gets a job painting a WPA mural on the wall of a post office in remote Dawes, Wyoming. In addition, he has been offered lodging on the nearby Long Shot Ranch, owned by a wealthy landowner, John Long. Long, who has political ambitions, has a younger wife, Eve, with a past that includes years spent on the road, picking fruit, surviving in hobo camps, and eventually singing in traveling country bands. To Val they seem an unlikely couple and during the course of story, no one who has ever read a novel will be surprised to learn, their relationship begins to fray in dramatic fashion.

I found the beginning stages of The Trackers to be its most satisfying section. Frazier's writing style is very engaging, and Val's long musings and observations about the nature of the Depression and the damage it has done to millions of lives in the name of greed and irresponsibility I found very well done. Val's description of the Wyoming landscape and Eve's description of the horrors (and satisfactions) of her earlier life are all quite good. Another memorable character is Faro, the Long Shot's foreman who has a colorful and dangerous past of his own.

Once the plot line gets going, however, as Eve takes off with a small Renoir of her husband's to parts unknown and for reasons obscure, and Long hires Val to go find her, things begin to get a bit more pedestrian. The storyline stays engaging, and Frazier's writing overall remains strong, but I began to wonder what it was all for. Also the common trope of the innocent abroad, much less worldly than he believes himself to be and constantly in error, began to wear on me a bit. Time and again I would say to myself, "You know nothing, Jon Snow."*

However, I don't want to overemphasize the novel's faults. All and all I found it entertaining and fun, with some stretches of really lovely writing and a good if not particularly believable plot.

* Game of Thrones reference ( )

The writing is as beautiful as always in a Frazier book, but the characters are not as likable or memorable as in his previous works. ( )