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Cold Quiet Country Kindle Edition

by Clayton Lindemuth (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 826 ratings
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On his last day in power, with a blizzard threatening 18 inches of snow, Sheriff Bittersmith’s is called to the scene of a crime. A farmer has been stabbed clean through the neck with a pitchfork. Two sets of tracks lead from the barn, and the dead man’s frantic wife exclaims her daughter is missing. Convinced it was Gale G’Wain, the orphan who worked at the farm, Bittersmith follows the vanishing footprints into the storm.

Three miles away, Gale G’Wain is alone and close to dead. He’s holed up in an empty farmhouse, half-dressed and nearly dead after falling through lake ice. Innocent, but unlikely to ever stand trial in a town as corrupt as Bittersmith, he loads his gun and prepares to defend himself against the dead man’s bloodthirsty sons and the Sheriff’s Department.

Set in small town Wyoming in the 70s and unfolding in a single day, Clayton Lindemuth's debut novel, Cold Quiet Country, explores small-town corruption and the lengths some people will go to exact revenge.

“Lindemuth’s impressive debut…is a go-for-the-jugular country noir….Lindemuth carefully weaves characters’ backstories into this thrilling narrative, and his visceral prose and unsparing tone are wonderfully reminiscent of such modern rural noir masters as Tom Franklin and Donald Ray Pollock.”
Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Clayton Lindemuth was born in Royal Oak, MI, but grew up in rural western Pennsylvania. After serving in the U.S. Army he began a career in financial services, finished his BA at Arizona State University, and is now a sales manager at a prestigious firm. His interest include economics, woodworking, and running marathons. Cold Quiet Country is his first published work. Cold Quiet Country is Clayton Lindemuth's first novel.
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  1. Print length
    223 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    September 23, 2012
  5. File size
    966 KB
  6. Page Flip
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  7. Word Wise
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  8. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Publishers Weekly ( ★ Starred Review★ ) "Lindemuth's impressive debut...is a go-for-the-jugular country noir.... and his visceral prose and unsparing tone are wonderfully reminiscent of such modern rural noir masters as Tom Franklin and Donald Ray Pollock." --
ForeWord Reviews ★★★★★ Clayton Lindemuth's stunning first novel is all about good hunting down evil on a snowbound day, but common notions about good men no longer apply in the moral darkness that is Bittersmith. As Gale waits for his accusers, including Sheriff Bittersmith, to track him down, he reflects on his options: on one hand, "obedience and expeditiousness;" on the other, "standing against a world gone mad." Through Gale, Lindemuth is unsparing in his advocacy of the "honorable fight."

From the Back Cover

On his last day in power, with a blizzard threatening 18 inches of snow, Sheriff Bittersmith is called to the scene of a crime. A farmer has been stabbed clean through the neck with a pitchfork. Two sets of tracks lead from the barn, and the dead man's frantic wife exclaims her daughter is missing. Convinced it was Gale G'Wain, the orphan who worked at the farm, Bittersmith follows the vanishing footprints into the storm.

Three miles away, Gale G'Wain is alone and close to dead. He's holed up in an empty farmhouse, half-dressed and nearly dead after falling through lake ice. Innocent, but unlikely to ever stand trial in a town as corrupt as Bittersmith, he loads his gun and prepares to defend himself against the dead man's bloodthirsty sons and the Sheriff's Department.

Set in small town Wyoming in the 70s and unfolding in a single day, Clayton Lindemuth's debut novel, Cold Quiet Country, explores small-town corruption and the lengths some people will go to exact revenge.

With a deft hand and sinister eye, Clayton Lindemuth reminds us that the green, idyllic landscape of Middle America can suddenly become an ominous backdrop for violence and treachery. Suspenseful, intelligent and bold, COLD QUIET COUNTRY brings a new edge to the world of modern noir and readers will not be able to look upon rolling hills, pastoral fields and picturesque barns without a sense of foreboding anytime soon.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009G3HYJW
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ MP Publishing Limited (September 23, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 23, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 966 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 223 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 826 ratings

About the author

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Clayton Lindemuth

Clayton Lindemuth

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I write fiction that shines light into dark places... then goes exploring.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
826 global ratings
Gritty Country Noir At Its Finest
5 Stars
Gritty Country Noir At Its Finest
What can I say about Clayton Lindenmuth‘s short revenge thriller Cold Quiet Country? It was surely a page-turner as thoughtfully penned and quickly moving as any I’ve read. It had a fair amount of smut in it when seen through the eyes of the antagonist, a crooked, womanizing sheriff who’d fathered, assaulted, or impregnated half the county. There were two distressed damsels, each abused by their fathers, one a communist, the other a violent right wing militiaman and a Mason, and yet in my opinion, this western noir could still safely be called a Christian novel, as the protagonist demonstrated a profound respect for the Lord, operating under a clear set of morals that he didn’t violate, even as his body count grew and his life was on the line. It had a great number of hard punching one-liners like, “…so useless that if he had a third hand he’d need a third pocket to put it in.” Set in 1971, on one wintry Wyoming day, it was so well described, I had to turn off my air conditioning. Download it on kindle or get you a paperback copy of this gritty little novel. Sadly no audible option was available.
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Top reviews from the United States

WAYNE B
5.0 out of 5 stars Gritty Country Noir At Its Finest
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2022
Verified Purchase
What can I say about Clayton Lindenmuth‘s short revenge thriller Cold Quiet Country? It was surely a page-turner as thoughtfully penned and quickly moving as any I’ve read. It had a fair amount of smut in it when seen through the eyes of the antagonist, a crooked, womanizing sheriff who’d fathered, assaulted, or impregnated half the county. There were two distressed damsels, each abused by their fathers, one a communist, the other a violent right wing militiaman and a Mason, and yet in my opinion, this western noir could still safely be called a Christian novel, as the protagonist demonstrated a profound respect for the Lord, operating under a clear set of morals that he didn’t violate, even as his body count grew and his life was on the line. It had a great number of hard punching one-liners like, “…so useless that if he had a third hand he’d need a third pocket to put it in.” Set in 1971, on one wintry Wyoming day, it was so well described, I had to turn off my air conditioning. Download it on kindle or get you a paperback copy of this gritty little novel. Sadly no audible option was available.
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WAYNE B
5.0 out of 5 stars Gritty Country Noir At Its Finest
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2022
What can I say about Clayton Lindenmuth‘s short revenge thriller Cold Quiet Country? It was surely a page-turner as thoughtfully penned and quickly moving as any I’ve read. It had a fair amount of smut in it when seen through the eyes of the antagonist, a crooked, womanizing sheriff who’d fathered, assaulted, or impregnated half the county. There were two distressed damsels, each abused by their fathers, one a communist, the other a violent right wing militiaman and a Mason, and yet in my opinion, this western noir could still safely be called a Christian novel, as the protagonist demonstrated a profound respect for the Lord, operating under a clear set of morals that he didn’t violate, even as his body count grew and his life was on the line. It had a great number of hard punching one-liners like, “…so useless that if he had a third hand he’d need a third pocket to put it in.” Set in 1971, on one wintry Wyoming day, it was so well described, I had to turn off my air conditioning. Download it on kindle or get you a paperback copy of this gritty little novel. Sadly no audible option was available.
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Ray Wilhelm
4.0 out of 5 stars Cold Quiet Country review
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2022
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It was cold. It was country. It was anything but quiet. When Clayton Lindemuth weaves a story you can bet some mayhem is afoot. And not the kind you get from Alstate. Bittersmith, Wyoming is a town so screwed up from its namesake Sheriff down to two innocent (at least for their part) young girl. An orphan comes to town to make things right and to find out about his roots. If you've read any of Clayton's books before you'll love Cold Quiet Country.
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Phillip Thompson, author of "Deep Blood";
5.0 out of 5 stars No holds barred noir
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2013
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So many novels, regardless of genre, cover stretches of time -- some vast, some mundane -- that it's sometimes hard to imagine that an entire novel can be written about a single day. But that's exactly what Clayton Lindemuth gives us in Cold Quiet Country, and he does it exceedingly well.

In a small Wyoming town in the dead of winter, on a day facing a gigantic blizzard, Sheriff Bittersmith prepares for his last day on the job. He hardly gets the chance. Early on, he's called to the scene of what seems to be the murder of a local farmer in his own barn. The hysterical farmer's wife implores Bittersmith that the killer can only be Gale G'Wain, a recently arrived orphan who took up work at the farm and, apparently, took up an interest in the daughter, Gwen. Burning with vengeance, Bittersmith heads out on foot in the drifting snow to bring G'Wain to justice.

Gale, meanwhile, has holed up in an abandoned house a few miles away, nearly frozen stiff and nursing a severe leg wound after being stabbed. He turns the house into an fortress, his own personal Alamo, thanks to the arsenal of weapons left by the former occupant.

Thus begins the unfolding of Lindemuth's intricate tale, which, at its core, is an examination of good and evil, as personified in Gale and Bittersmith, respectively. At times evoking the religiosity and the redemption themes of Flannery O'Connor, Lindemuth pits these two against not each other, but themselves and their own frailties and failings, all against the backdrop of a storm that has a life of its own.

Told in a series of not necessarily chronological flashbacks (think "Tarantino-style"), Lindemuth's prose is solid, rich and resonant, yet remains completely within the realm of his rural setting: bold, raw and earthy. He takes his time setting the pace, unmasking detail after detail at just the right moment, drawing the reader along until the very last gunshot. Cold Quiet Country is an outstanding debut novel, the kind that makes you look forward to more from the author.
One person found this helpful
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Cheryl Stout
5.0 out of 5 stars "There’s no way to make death mechanical..."
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2019
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"There’s no way to make death mechanical yet beautiful. It is always ugly, and those about to die see it."

It is 1971. Young Gale grew up in an orphanage after his mother left him there and he had an okay life. But he's older now and he asks the head of the orphanage for details of his birth. All the man is willing to tell him is that his mother was raped by someone in power in the small Wyoming town of Bittersmith. So that is where he heads.

What he finds is a town full of corruption and evil men plus one girl...a girl that he wants to rescue.

This is the author's debut novel and I was impressed. I just got finished reading the author's four book series about Baer Creighton (also excellent BTW) and, yes, he's grown as an author but you can see his burgeoning talent in this first book.

This was not an easy book to read. It was full of men I wanted to spit on. Be warned there are some definite triggers here - rape, incest, and violence. But it's definitely a book well worth reading.

I've had some of Lindemuth's book in my library to read for a long time now and something always got in the way. I finally decided to start reading them and I'm so glad I did. I actually purchased more and am on a binge. I'm now off to read STRONG AT THE BROKEN PLACES.
8 people found this helpful
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Ken Bittner
5.0 out of 5 stars I'm trying to leave a review and I'm almost speechless.
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2023
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Finishing this story about Gale G'Wain and Sheriff Bittersmith (along with the other incipient characters) has almost left me without words. I've come to expect a lot from Clayton Lindermuth, having read the entire Baer Creighton saga, but this story took me to places I could hardly imagine existed!
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Top reviews from other countries

Eddie Smyth - Author of The Revenge of the Stoned Rats: The novel previously known as 'The Prince'
5.0 out of 5 stars I haven't thawed out yet.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 14, 2021
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I finished this a while ago, but if it’s a mark of a good book that it’s stays with you, then this is it! I’d never heard of Clayton Lindemuth before, so this was another shot in the dark for me, but the worst that was going to happen was that I’d have add it to my growing didn’t finish pile and have to venture forth, once more, in search of something enjoyable to read.
I needn’t have worried. A despicable old man in a corrupt small town, being forcibly removed from his Sheriff’s office, sets out in righteous pursuit of a quarry who he’s convinced is a murderer. The plot is as thick as the snow that falls relentlessly, burying beneath it a world of incestuous violence and secrets that were never to be revealed.
Law or justice? Truth or fallacy? Are there any winners at all? A really enthralling read.
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Rob Edwards
5.0 out of 5 stars the shoreline is great, you can at times see where it is ...
Reviewed in Canada on July 11, 2014
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Why has this book not been made into a movie yet? the shoreline is great, you can at times see where it is headed, but that just makes you want to read more
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Ozzie cactus fan
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic read!
Reviewed in Australia on March 4, 2016
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I absolutely loved this debut book by Clayton Lindemuth! Loved the country noir style. That prompted me to buy Mr Lindemuth's other books - 'Nothing save the Bones Inside Her' and 'My Brother's Destroyer'. Mr Lindemuth tackles some unpleasant issues - like incest and dog-fighting - but never proselytises about them. I love Mr Lindemuth's writing style - shades of Cormac McCarthy. He spins a great story that keeps you reading, but it is the wonderful writing that really turns me on! I love his many funny and highly appropriate sayings. I highly recommend Carl Lindemuth's books to anyone who appreciates beautiful writing - that tells a great tale!
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Lindylou
4.0 out of 5 stars An unusual stoyline
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 1, 2016
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No doubt this is a well written & dark book. It is cold & menacing but the 'bad guy' is intelligent fearless & clever and likeable. Most unusual to have empathy but with the life he had it's hard not to. He meets up with a succession of vile &perverted people..........I'll say no more.....
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stephen ferguson
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly recommended.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 17, 2016
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This is a hard book to read as it touches truly unpleasant aspects of life but it is very well written, each chapter being written from a different protagonists view. This means that you feel you are getting close to an answer when the chapter ends another person takes over so you are left hungry to find out more.
A very well written book, with a strong storyline that I found hard to put down. Thoroughly recommended.
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