“[So] good I wish I’d written it. The poetic and bloody ground of west Texas has given birth to a powerful new voice in contemporary western crime fiction.”—Craig Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of the Walt Longmire series In this gritty crime debut set in the stark Texas borderlands, an unearthed skeleton will throw a small town into violent turmoil. Seventeen-year-old Caleb Ross is …
Seventeen-year-old Caleb Ross is adrift in the wake of the sudden disappearance of his mother more than a year ago, and is struggling to find his way out of the small Texas border town of Murfee. Chris Cherry is a newly minted sheriff’s deputy, a high school football hero who has reluctantly returned to his hometown. When skeletal remains are discovered in the surrounding badlands, the two are inexorably drawn together as their efforts to uncover Murfee’s darkest secrets lead them to the same terrifying suspect: Caleb’s father and Chris’s boss, the charismatic and feared Sheriff Standford “Judge” Ross.
Dark, elegiac, and violent, The Far Empty is a modern Western, a story of loss and escape set along the sharp edge of the Texas border. Told by a longtime federal agent who knows the region, it’s a debut novel you won’t soon forget.
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The whipsaw action of J. Todd Scott’s debut novel The Far Empty plays out in the shadow of the Chisos Mountains on the Texas Borderlands. Scott burrows into the hearts and minds of seven intertwined principles whose pasts are strewn with violence. Revenge drives them all, the just and the unjust. Scott’s deft plotting is a potent accelerant. This story goes like a house afire.
Didn’t care for the style.
The Western genre made me love reading good verse evil themed yarns, the lawman themed stories are one of my favorites and it’s so cool to see those elements happening in a modern day lawman novel like ‘The Far Empty’.
My first read from author J. Todd Scott, he grabs you the reader hook, line and sinker. With the Far Empty, he brings West Texas vividly too life, it reads like a movie, has a multiple interetwinning storyline, that takes you on a roller coaster read, strap yourself into your favorite reading spot and your in for a masterfully paced thrill read.
For once I like the way he controls the flow, switching gears from fast to slow, depends on the character and got to say for once I was eagerly a waiting to see the demise of the Judge. You can’t help but like Dep. Chris Cherry, Melissa, Anne, Caleb and America just bring it too life and without them ‘The Far Empty’ doesn’t work.
While I do think that the author wrote a masterpiece with this one. I would have made three minor changes that would have lead to an even more intense read and be a way cooler ending.
1.) With how badly Duane tormented Ame. It would have been cool too have her kill him verse how he
actually wrote it.
2) Since Chris knew something was up when he and Duane went out to where the plane was or later
on in the story when he was talking to the Judge, it seemed like he knew. So rather than make it
unrealistic with him getting shot 3 times, yet kills three people and especially since it’s meters
away from an aorta to his heart. Keep the part about his leg giving out, his bum knee saves his life,
he gets behind cover, that enables him to take out the three cartel people and survives to confront
the Judge.
3) Since everything about the Sheriff Standford “Judge” Ross about the old West. Just seems way
cooler to have his son Caleb to discover the scalps of his three wives in the attic, along with
evidence of his corruption and have him end up standing trial verse dying a hero.
This was an awesome debut read from author J. Todd Scott, ‘The Far Empty’ is a must read, it’s one of those books that will influence your reading and definitely can’t wait to read more from this series.
Love the Longmire series. I recommend both the books and the television series.
What a writer! What a story! This evocative, mesmerizing novel creates an indelible sense of place. Highly recommended.
To slow and repetative
So much ugliness. At least it ends with a little hope.
Very sad book. Would not recomend.
I liked it a lot
“The story occurs in the vicinity of the United States-Mexico border in 1980 and concerns an illegal drug deal gone awry in the Texas desert back country”. This was the description of a Cormac McCarthy’s novel “No Country for Old Men”. It pretty well describes Scott J. Todd’s “The Far Empty” except for the 1980. McCarthy’s tale is simple and straightforward, Todd’s more complex but both are great reads and deals with illegal border crossings, drugs and killers. If you’ve ever been to Big Bend National Park you don’t want to miss reading this book. I didn’t find it easy to read. John Stanford or John Grisham are easy to read, like a hot knife going through butter. Mr. Todd’s writing style has me going back and rereading paragraphs to better understand what he’s saying, but it was worth it. I always like it when there’s a hero.
After a couple of chapters, I closed it and deleted it from my kindle.
Very dark in places and graphically violent, but so well written I felt like I was there Excellent story teller!
If you like CJ Box you’ll enjoy this.
If you liked the Dent MIller books, you’ll love Scott’s series set on the Texas/Mexican border. He’s an active DEA agent and gets his facts right. The villians in the first book are way scarier than any clown in the sewers, because there are real people out there just like them.
Longmire fans and others who enjoy “new west” will want to read this one.
Great writing, kept my interest throughout. Amazing descriptions of locations and characters.
Awesome
Love the Longmire series
Very good
Not your usual law enforcement novel. Great character development, interesting plot. Makes you want to see what happens next after it ends….