The story begins in post civil war America. The country is still under Marshall law and John (Jean) Chenneville has just woken up from a coma in a Virginia military hospital. Impatient to recover and return to his family, John leaves Virginia for his Missouri. Once home he finds out that his sister and her family have been brutally murdered by a man named AJ Dodd. This propels John on a journey of revenge from Missouri all the way down to Texas. This is a story one man’s deep desire for revenge. A desire that will not be curbed by the threat of arrest, life in jail or the love of a woman.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I love this story. Jiles style of writing is so easy going and drew me in that I couldn’t help but become emotionally attached. Despite the vengeful path John takes I rooted for him every step of the way. I felt the grief, the brief moments of happiness and honestly I felt a swooned by John’s chivalry. For such a brawny guy, he was so kind.

I read this as an advanced readers copy from William Morrow and NetGalley.

Paulette Jiles is my favorite historical fiction author, and her newest book, Chenneville, is another flawless contribution to her body of work. Like her other novels, Chenneville takes place in the post-Civil War era, mainly in the St. Louis, Missouri, and East Texas regions. In addition, and true to her other books, this novel focuses on a character's quest that takes them vividly across the trails and terrain of Missouri, Arkansas, and East Texas. Jiles instills her stories with the best-researched, most historically accurate details of everyday life and travel in this era. Chenneville, the hero of this book, is a complex and sympathetic character struggling to recover from a devastating head wound. So many Civil War soldiers dealt with comparable recoveries, and I found this aspect of the story fascinating. Fans of historical fiction and the US Civil War, in particular, will want to add this book to the top of their TBR list.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eBook version of the novel in exchange for a review.

I loved this book! I was invested from the start. John Chenneville goes on a quest to find and punish his sister's murderer. He was wounded during the civil war and it takes him some time to recover enough to go on his quest. His journey takes him through Missourri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Giles put the reader into the settings in a marvelous way. We get to see how life was in this part of the US after the civil war. It was eye opening without feeling traumatized.

We meet a cast of characters that are varied and genuine. I thought John adapted to each person the best he could. John was one of the best characters I have ever known. I loved how he treated others and the extra steps he took to do the right thing. He is someone I would like to know.

I have read News of the World, which I loved but this has prompted me to want to read some of her other books.

I recommend for anyone loving history, a Western and wanting a great story.

Meet former Union soldier John Chenneville at the end of the Civil War. Injured, he returns home to the devastating news that his sister and her family have been brutally murdered. Determined to find the man who killed them, John journeys from his home in Missouri, through Arkansas, and along the length of Texas in search of the killer, A.J. Dodd. Along the way he meets many individuals, some good, some bad, and follows along the killer’s path of murder and deceit. John even meets a woman he knows he could love and settle down with. But in his single-mindedness, vengeance takes precedence over everything else. The author mentions characters from two of her previously published post-Civil War novels, News of the World and Simon the Fiddler. (Not necessary to have read them.)

The writing in Chenneville is both descriptive and enthralling. I found myself cheering John on, wishing him success on this mission while simultaneously hoping he does not have to become a murderer himself. This is the fourth novel by Paulette Jiles that I have read and enjoyed. She is an author well-worth reading. Highly recommended.

Engrossing and suspenseful tale of a wounded former Union soldier home after the Civil War, who returns to the grief of murdered family members, and vows to track down their killer. His journey is fraught with danger both from those who would stop him, and others who believe he himself to be guilty. He finds companionship and encouragement in a couple of quarters, one of which promises to be long lasting. This is a contemplative and inspiring read to savor.

Chenneville follows Jean/John Chenneville on his road to vengeance against the murderer of his sister and her family, following the end of the American Civil War. Near the end of the War, John suffers a spectacular head wound, resulting in a long road to recovery, and so is late to learning about the murder of his sister, her husband, and their infant child. He becomes determined to bring their killer to justice in the chaotic West, primarily under martial law after the war.

From the beginning, we know who the killer is, and this book revolves around John as he doggedly follows the murderer from Missouri to Oklahoma and eventually to Texas. Along the way he meets with many characters, both a help and a hindrance to him and his quest.

This book was written beautifully, but I felt like I never truly knew or understood John, and overall, although the time period was of interest to me, and I have recently found I enjoyed reading Westerns, I found this book pretty unsatisfying to read. With that in mind, I would rate it 3 stars. It was an ok read, but the end left me scoffing with annoyance.

Thank you to William Morrow, Book Club Girl, and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

John Chenneville has spent the last year in a coma after a devastating rebel attack in the Civil War. He spends several months recovering from his head injury, trying to regain his mobility and his memory. Eventually, John heads home to reunite with his family and learns the devastating news, his sister and her family were murdered by a brutal sequential killer, Albert Dodd. Chenneville's main purpose in life are to hunt down the bastard that killed his kind and funny sister and extinguish his brutal life. Throughout the rest of the story, we travel with John from St. Louis to his final destination in Texas. Along the way, readers should expect vivid descriptions of not only the characters but of the landscape, which breathes a great deal of life to the story. Chenneville meets several interesting characters from two Western Union telegraph operators, a US Marshall pursuing justice, a woman trying to survive in a desolate spot in Texas, and a young thief that he saves from the noose. I loved reading about John and continued to wonder if he would meet his end due to his horrific head injury or some other end unrelated to his injury before he finds Dodd. I recommend Chenneville to fans of westerns and historical fiction.
I read this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Union officer John Chenneville suffered a terrible head wound shortly before the end of the Civil War, and he remains in a Virginia hospital long after the war before he suddenly surprises everyone by regaining consciousness. But even after John finally makes it back to his Missouri home, he can remember very little of life there before the war, and details are slow to come back to him. For weeks, his health is deemed to be still so precarious, in fact, that John's uncle fears giving him some tragic family news: John's sister, her husband, and their baby boy have all been brutally murdered...and the man responsible is going to get away with it.

A.J. Dodd is out there somewhere, and now all John Chenneville can think about is finding him - and killing him. It will be another year before John is physically able to begin the chase, one that will take him all the way from Missouri to Texas. Once Dodd figures out exactly who is so determined to find him, it is all he can do to stay one frustrating step after another ahead of his pursuer, but he does.

Sometime on foot, sometime on horseback, John refuses to give up the chase despite the numerous setbacks he encounters. This, however, is more than just a test of the man's physical endurance. As the miles mount up, John will as often be threatened by murderous scoundrels as he will meet kindhearted people wanting to help him find Dodd. The problem is in telling one from the other.

In John Chenneville, Paulette Jiles has created a memorable character, one that becomes more and more real to readers as they come to know him. John is a good man, but he is a man whose pride and love of family demands that he avenge the death of his sister and her family. He has no other choice, and he knows it. He will think of little else until he confronts Dobbs face-to-face. But as the miles begin to take their toll, John can't help but wonder if he will ever find the man:

"He was deeply afraid of another disappointment, another dead end. He was afraid not of other men but of despair."

Call it historical fiction, call it a western, but what this is is a novel about a man who has had his future stolen from him, and who knows he will never be able to get it back. Now someone has to pay, and John Chenneville knows exactly who that is.

Paulette Jiles has written another outstanding historical novel set just after the Civil War, with an unforgettable main character on an epic journey of revenge. After surviving a major head injury, Union soldier John Chenneville discovers that his beloved sister has been murdered, as well as her husband and young son. John sets out to track down the murderer, and his search takes him from Missouri to Texas and many places in between. Jiles writes both her characters and her landscapes with depth and vitality, and at times I felt like I was right there next to John through some truly horrific experiences. I will say that, at first, the ending was a crushing disappointment, but now, with time to reflect on the book, I have come to terms with it and even embrace and appreciate how Jiles ended the novel. The fact that I couldn't stop thinking about the ending and how it colored my experience of the entire book means that it was successful, despite my initial personal disappointment. Life is not always tidy, but I won't say anything else because I don't want to verge into spoiler territory. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for a digital review copy.

I wouldn't consider myself a person who likes westerns if it weren't for Paulette Jiles. John Chenneville is a memorable, multi-faceted character with a singular focus, and traveling along the war-torn country with him on his quest was a pleasure. I never knew what was going to happen but I knew I was in good hands. This will be an excellent book club book.

Chenneville is an injured Union soldier returning home to Missouri after the civil war. As he returns home to his family farm to recuperate, he learns that his sister and her family have been brutally murdered. He sets out to learn who the killer is and exact revenge. As he investigates the murder he discovers he’s hunting a deranged serial killer. From Missouri, through Indian Territory, and into Texas, we journey with Chenneville through the chaotic and lawless aftermath of the Civil War. Chenneville is a loyal, determined, and grief stricken hero,. I’ll admit it, I fell in love with him a little.

As an Okie, I especially loved the descriptions of the landscape, people, culture, and weather of Indian Territory. Added bonus for Jiles fans: the man who reads the news of the world and Simon the Fiddler are both mentioned, and Simon actually propels a pivotal plot point.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

Set in post Civil War era, John Chenneville is recovering from a nearly lethal head injury. At home, he learns his sister, her husband and child are killed in a senseless, brutal murder. This sets Chenneville on a trail of Vengeance as he searches for their killer.

Another great story by Jiles. I hope to see this put into a movie (Bradley Cooper = Chenneville).

4☆

The Civil War affected many individuals in different ways. John Chenneville spends almost a year in a military hospital following an injury he received in the war. When he is on the road to recovery, he is finally able to return to Missouri to his home. Upon arriving home, he spends time finishing his recuperation, learning to shoot a gun again, getting his memory back. He discovers his sister, her husband and their child were murdered in cold blood. Chenneville resolves to revenge the murder.

He gathers his supplies, and sets out to find the man who committed the murders. His journey leads him into some very rugged territory, he meets all kinds of cutthroats, along with some really nice people who help him out. He is accused of murder and flees to keep himself out of jail. He was a telegrapher during the war, and he meets a very unusual woman telegrapher. She ends up playing a very important role in the story.

Paulette Jiles at her best.

Revenge is sadly self-defeating. It will eat away at you until there is nothing left to salvage.

Paulette Jiles is in a category all by herself when it comes to stellar authors. She never disappoints. Jiles has an uncanny talent when it comes to creating characters honed from the earth and faceted by the abrasiveness of life's endless journeys.

You may remember News of the World (2018) made into a movie starring Tom Hanks. Jiles revisits this theme of post-Civil War America when lawlessness reigned and rebuilding unity was almost a far-fetched dream. Men of a certain mindset carried resentment in a holster alongside their weapon.

We'll meet Jean-Louis "John" Chenneville laying in a hospital bed suffering from a severe skull fracture injury. A gunpowder explosion had left him in a semi-coma in a field hospital for months. John was a First Lieutenant of the 80th Infantry of New York. Slowly, John regains consciousness. He is being cared for by a male nurse, Lemuel, who we will come to know more in depth later.

John's uncle, Basile of New Orleans, wishes John to return to the family estate outside of St. Louis, Missouri. Lemuel will accompany him on his long journey back home. The surgeon was amazed at John's recovery. But he cautions John that he must not tax himself. It will be a long road back to his former self.

But when John finally reaches home, he is met with devastating news. Someone has killed his only sister, Lalie, her husband, and their year old infant. And it is here that we, as readers, feel the caustic rage within John for his loss. He is hellbent on connecting bits and pieces of information. But it's been over a year and evidence is scanty at best. However, John has a name. And that name will light a fire within him.

Jiles takes us on a journey through Keota Indian Territory, the Red River Valley, the Chicksaw Nation, and finally to Marshall, Texas. Soon John himself will have a price on his head for a murder he did not commit. U.S. Marshal Giddens will be relentless in his pursuit of John. And throughout, John will be in search of this man. He's got nothing to lose now. All has been taken from him.

Chenneville is a remarkable novel. It is a tale of human nature pushed to the very edge. And it is a reminder that good men do exist even pressed by horrendous and unspeakable tragedies. And Jiles sets this tale with her remarkable storytelling ability. No stone is left unturned and what is revealed is the underbelly of life in a time crying out for resurrection.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to HarperCollins Publishing and to the talented Paulette Jiles for the opportunity.

I fell in love with Chenneville! Paulette Jiles has a way of quietly making you care about her solitary characters. This book shares some similarities with her earlier novel, News of the World. Both books take place in the same post civil-war time frame and follow one man on a journey through the 'wild west'. John Chenneville had been injured with a head wound in the war and returns home to find his family had been murdered. With nothing else to live for, he goes on a quest to avenge the murders. This takes him through Indian Territory from St. Louis to Texas. He encounters memorable characters and various challenges as he also undergoes his own transformation along the way. Wonderful writing with a slow build into a rather exciting crescendo. Highly recommend!

Missouri was divided by the Civil War, the division personal, between family members and friends. After the war, the South was in chaos, a “land of criminals and casual murder.”

The Chennevilles were for the Union, the mother ardently anti-slavery. John Chenneville joined the Union army; his beloved sister fell in love with a Confederate soldier. They had a son named for John.

An explosion had left Chenneville in a coma, his recovery taking a long time. When he finally returned home to Missouri, he found the plantation in ruins, his mother having left after his father’s death. Chenneville’s fiancé’ had died. And now he learned that his sister and her family were dead, murdered by a man named Dodd.

With his family gone, the plantation had no value, no one to hand it down to. Chenneville was left with one purpose in life: to find Dodd and kill him.

Chenneville follows Dodd through the South to Galveston through a cruel winter, the land harsh and beautiful, encountering memorable people along the way, good people who offer him friendship and comfort, and duplicitous men in league with Dodd.

There’s the law and then there’s justice…Sometimes the two overlap.
from Chenneville by Paulette Jiles

I was completely enthralled by the story. Jiles brings to life the violent, lawless breakdown after the war. We meet a widow hiding alone in the wilderness and young women abducted for floating brothels, the telegraphers who offer hospitality, and desperate men hired by Dodd. Chenneville is a good man who commits himself to breaking the law in order to bring justice to his family. He didn’t expect to find love along the way, yet is willing to give up all hope of a normal life.

I loved the mentions of the man who reads the news and the fiddler who unknowingly changes Chenneville’s life, references to characters from Jiles’ previous novels News of the World and Simon the Fiddler.

The novel offers readers a fantastic tale into the post-war breakdown of society, filled with sympathetic and memorable characters struggling to survive in a hard time in a lawless land.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

An amazing tale, set in post-civil war, of John Chenneville. Struggling to heal physically from his war injuries, he learns of a devastating murder and sets out to dole out justice. His journey across harsh landscapes takes the reader on a ride that they will think of long after the book ends.

John Chenneville is a broken man. He suffered a near fatal head wound in the Civil War and traveled home to find that his sister and her family were murdered. John has nothing left to live for but to get revenge on the man who did it. He travels from St Louis to San Antonio, suffering hardship and danger. He knows that his life is over when his task is complete, but he is willing to spend the rest of his life in prison for the satisfaction of killing the murderer.
This book is not as easy to read and Jiles’ previous books like News of the World. The prose is rich and requires a slower pace. However, it gains pace by the third chapter and gets increasingly compelling.
Another great work by Paulette Jiles. Highly recommended.

After the Civil War, former Union soldier John Chenneville tracks his sister Lalie’s killer, a crooked deputy named Dodd, across hundreds of miles of battle-ravaged Indian territory and the U.S. frontier. His hard and painful journey takes him from Missouri to the Gulf Coast of Texas in CHENNEVILLE by Paulette Jiles (William Morrow/HarperCollins, September 12, 2023). Dodd also murdered Lalie’s husband and infant son (Chenneville’s namesake). As he flees from Chenneville, Dodd is still committing murders, but being a deputy, he is above the law. Chenneville wants to kill Dodd more than anything, but on the long manhunt in 1866-67 Chenneville finds himself being less of an avenger and more of a savior, both of animals and people. Chenneville attracts life and goodness at almost every stop on his quest for vengeance. Because of a terrible war wound in Chenneville’s head; Dodd’s willingness to steal, cripple, and kill horses to move faster; and a compulsion to be honorable in every situation; Chenneville falls far behind his quarry.

A brilliant and lovely telegraph operator is the biggest distraction from Chenneville’s mission, because she knows what he does not: his real mission is to map his post-war life. To discover what kind of man limped out of that field hospital in Virginia where they sewed his head back together. To map out a future for one John Chenneville. Along with a US Marshal who thinks Chenneville committed one of Dodd’s murders, the benevolent ghost of his own future healed and whole self tracks Chenneville through the middle of what will be the USA, just as surely as he tracks the evil Dodd.

Evocative and moving, this novel was impossible to put down or to read quickly. Jiles did some brilliant period research and the novel is bursting with rich and livid descriptions of a vanished landscape.

4 1/2 stars
John Chenneville newly discharged from the Civil War comes home to find his sister, her husband and baby brutally murdered. Determined to find whoever is responsible he sets out to dispense justice in what seems a lawless land -Texas. He is a gentle soul suffering from the aftermath of such inhumanity and violence and he tries to do good on his journey to stop someone bad. Paulette Jiles has a gift of taking a rugged landscape filled with honest down to earth good people caught in situations not of their making. She gives us tragic and brutal stories with a soft underbelly. Do I want this to be a movie with Tom Hanks as the star - heck yes! For lovers of all quiet westerns with unforgettable characters like her other books and those of Larry McMurtry. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.