cover image Indiana Gothic

Indiana Gothic

Pope F. Brock, Jr.. Nan A. Talese, $24.95 (384pp) ISBN 978-0-385-48509-8

Brock calls his first book ""a true story, reconstructed,"" in which the facts form ""a line of buoys in a sea of my own imagination."" And those lurid facts, all on their own, would tell a thriller-worthy tale: two sisters, Allie and Maggie, between whom cold rivalry far outstripped affection; a passionate and long-lasting affair between Allie and her brother-in-law, Maggie's husband, Ham; a love child, purposefully conceived and in a stroke of gross audacity named after his true father; a murder in which Ham was literally ""gunned down on Main Street"" by Allie's enraged husband, Link; and an eventful murder trial attended by both sisters in ""full widow's weeds."" What uniquely qualifies Brock to tell this tale is the fact that Ham was his great-grandfather. There is a certain timely piquancy, too, in the portrait of the author's forebear, a charismatic, indefatigably popular politician with a ""rambunctious arrogance"" and a weakness for women. Unrestrained in his psychological speculations, Brock sketches Ham and the entire cast of country doctors, hired hands, frosty matriarchs and corn farmers in vivid color. The depiction of rural life in Davies County, Indiana, in the early years of this century transports the reader. Although arguably less a work of history than a novel based on actual events, this is a quick flying read that is sure to entertain. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Apr.)