Brutal History

I gave another chance to Christoper Huang's Unnatural Ends, after not liking the sample chapters. I was just put off by the first chapter from Alan's perspective, droning on about archaeology, history, and his father's lineage; I could not see the point of that deadly dull inner monologue. Once I got into the next chapter with Roger and got actual dialogue with Iris, I started to be more interested. Then Caroline too got to speak and react to someone rather than just passively staring at the looming house with dread. Huang should have lead with the more active chapters. So I read the entire book, disappointed that we didn't see the return of Eric Peterkin as detective, but eventually I warmed up to the three siblings investigating the murder of their cruel, domineering father. They all had traumatic childhoods and were constantly pitted against each other way beyond normal sibling rivalry. During their murder investigation, the three siblings learn family secrets about their biological mothers and the long-running eugenics experiment being played out on them. It's a compelling mystery, though I did figure out a major plot twist that the siblings and Iris didn't realize until page 200-something. So I started to get impatient for them to realize the truth, and their father did seem to be too over-the-top, all-powerful in his villainy. Like, how did this monster convince other people like lawyers and professors to be passively involved, if not actual accomplices? I do wish Huang would go back to Peterkin for another mystery.

Meanwhile I watched the premiere of the new Bass Reeves show on Paramount. Technically this is an anthology show about "lawmen" and Bass Reeves will just be the first season. The first episode covers Bass being enslaved to his master Major George Reeves during the Civil War, then later escaping slavery. He's tempted to slip away during the war itself, but he sees deserters being shot, so he carries on in the battle as the major ordered him to. Bass proves skilled with a gun, though later another enslaved man complains about him fighting for the wrong side. Bass knows that he had to follow orders, just to live. Soon Major Reeves gets them sent home from the war, and it's only 1862; the major must be one hell of a jerk to piss off his commanders that much. They return to a mostly empty plantation in Texas, though Bass gets to reunite with his love Jennie. Major Reeves unexpectedly offers to free Bass if he can win a poker game, but of course this was just sadistic manipulation; he had no intention of letting Bass go. Bass is understandably enraged at being cheated, so he beats his master badly, then steals his gun. If his master dies, he knows he's in big trouble, so he rushes to Jennie. She tells him to take a horse and never look back; she'd rather lose him than see him lynched. So Bass escapes and crosses the Red River to Oklahoma, where he meets a Seminole widow Sarah who saves him and asks him to help on her farm. There he stays for years, only learning about the end of the war and that "Lincoln won" when an ex-Confederate shows up in town. The Confederates escape violently, shooting their way out and killing the Seminole boy Curtis. The widow mourns her son and tells Bass to leave with a horse. He goes back to reunite with Jennie.

The second episode starts with Bass and Jennie living on a farm in Arkansas. The farm is failing and their family is growing, so Bass takes an offer to join a posse serving a warrant on an Indian. I didn't like this one as much since we're subjected to Sherrill Lynn constantly talking about Indians being ruthless killers. He has history from the Civil War, but Bass doesn't point out that he saw white men scalping people during the war too. Eventually Bass quits the job as not being worth the money, but later Sherrill returns to offer Bass a job as a full-fledged Deputy Marshal. I look forward to more episodes if Bass can get rid of Sherrill and find a less racist partner.