Review of Broken Inn
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Review of Broken Inn
[Following is a volunteer review of "Broken Inn" by A.W. Baldwin.]
Broken Inn is A.W. Baldwin’s latest addition to his adventure thriller series of Western novels. It follows conservationist, “moonshining hermit,” Relic, as he again pitches battle with “snotheads” who have come to exploit and mar the land. As in the previous books, Relic is joined by an outsider. This time it is Hailey, a young aspiring journalist, who has come to work at the local paper. The book is set in the canyonlands near Arches National Park and specifically around the fictional, dilapidated Broken Inn, which is undergoing revitalization for the third time. The novel draws life from this scenery and Baldwin’s saturated observations such as “the cliffs above...seemed to glow, slivers of clay injected into the beached sandstone like fat marbled into raw steak.” This sort of imagery lingers in the background throughout the novel as the characters trot over plateaus and plunge into canyons.
While taking a bike ride outside of town near the inn, Hailey witnesses a murder and its subsequent cover up. When her editor asks her to write an article about the Broken Inn, she uses it as a cover to investigate the murder. But when she is discovered looking in the wrong room by an enormous security guard with a “chest like a bulging suitcase,” she escapes into the desert. The security guard (named Odin) is one of the more entertaining characters, in the sense that Relic and Hailey still refer to him as the “big man,” even after learning his absurd name. In the desert, Relic and Hailey team up, along with Ash, the newspaper’s photographer. While Relic takes every opportunity to sabotage the work being done, Hailey and Ash slowly uncover a more sinister operation underway with profound environmental consequences.
For the most part, this book did what it set out to do. It is a relief that there is no token romance thrown into the novel because the actual romance is between the protagonists and the landscape. Hailey, having clambered up a canyon wall, looks up and sees “ridges and mesas [rising] across the horizon, layered in sunset shades of plum and seafoam, the sky [turning] upside down it seemed, as if they were suddenly walking under water.”
At times, Baldwin’s prose feels random. For example, the lines --- “a man with a dark goatee peered down at her, into the cave of a dragon.” or “sunlight shone through a hole the size of a couple of basketballs” --- are odd. There’s nothing really wrong with them except that dragons and basketballs don’t track with the American West.
Broken Inn walks the well-trod themes of water, environment and opportunity that are ingrained with the American West, and increasingly, our stressed planet. Hailey grapples with the death of her mother, a COVID victim, while Relic offers advice from none other than Gandhi and Buddha, which come off as band-aid solutions to Hailey’s grief. Baldwin already was subtly describing Hailey’s emotional struggle through the state of her shoes. Hailey’s shoes, unsuited for outdoors, disintegrate as the story progresses and by the end are held together by strips of duct tape. It’s a simple metaphor, but it works because this is a simple book. It’s not trying to be a Tolstoy novel.
I would recommend this book to someone who is either already in love with the backcountry of the American West or someone who enjoys a simple adventure book with few frills. I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.
******
Broken Inn
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Broken Inn is A.W. Baldwin’s latest addition to his adventure thriller series of Western novels. It follows conservationist, “moonshining hermit,” Relic, as he again pitches battle with “snotheads” who have come to exploit and mar the land. As in the previous books, Relic is joined by an outsider. This time it is Hailey, a young aspiring journalist, who has come to work at the local paper. The book is set in the canyonlands near Arches National Park and specifically around the fictional, dilapidated Broken Inn, which is undergoing revitalization for the third time. The novel draws life from this scenery and Baldwin’s saturated observations such as “the cliffs above...seemed to glow, slivers of clay injected into the beached sandstone like fat marbled into raw steak.” This sort of imagery lingers in the background throughout the novel as the characters trot over plateaus and plunge into canyons.
While taking a bike ride outside of town near the inn, Hailey witnesses a murder and its subsequent cover up. When her editor asks her to write an article about the Broken Inn, she uses it as a cover to investigate the murder. But when she is discovered looking in the wrong room by an enormous security guard with a “chest like a bulging suitcase,” she escapes into the desert. The security guard (named Odin) is one of the more entertaining characters, in the sense that Relic and Hailey still refer to him as the “big man,” even after learning his absurd name. In the desert, Relic and Hailey team up, along with Ash, the newspaper’s photographer. While Relic takes every opportunity to sabotage the work being done, Hailey and Ash slowly uncover a more sinister operation underway with profound environmental consequences.
For the most part, this book did what it set out to do. It is a relief that there is no token romance thrown into the novel because the actual romance is between the protagonists and the landscape. Hailey, having clambered up a canyon wall, looks up and sees “ridges and mesas [rising] across the horizon, layered in sunset shades of plum and seafoam, the sky [turning] upside down it seemed, as if they were suddenly walking under water.”
At times, Baldwin’s prose feels random. For example, the lines --- “a man with a dark goatee peered down at her, into the cave of a dragon.” or “sunlight shone through a hole the size of a couple of basketballs” --- are odd. There’s nothing really wrong with them except that dragons and basketballs don’t track with the American West.
Broken Inn walks the well-trod themes of water, environment and opportunity that are ingrained with the American West, and increasingly, our stressed planet. Hailey grapples with the death of her mother, a COVID victim, while Relic offers advice from none other than Gandhi and Buddha, which come off as band-aid solutions to Hailey’s grief. Baldwin already was subtly describing Hailey’s emotional struggle through the state of her shoes. Hailey’s shoes, unsuited for outdoors, disintegrate as the story progresses and by the end are held together by strips of duct tape. It’s a simple metaphor, but it works because this is a simple book. It’s not trying to be a Tolstoy novel.
I would recommend this book to someone who is either already in love with the backcountry of the American West or someone who enjoys a simple adventure book with few frills. I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.
******
Broken Inn
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: There's a Rooster in My Bathroom! by Trish Ostroski
