Kirkus Review
Reading the journals of her Harvey Girl ancestor sends a young Texas woman
back in time to the New Mexico frontier in Crook's warmly drawn novel
(Promised Lands, 1994, etc.).
Thirtyish Meg Mabry, an administrator in an Austin hospital, has a prickly
relationship with her irrepressible grandmother, Claudia Bass. A renowned
historian universally known as Bassie, the old lady made her reputation by
publishing the journals of her mother, Hannah, a Harvey Girl at the
Montezuma Hotel in New Mexico at the turn of the century. Bassie also
essentially raised Meg after the girl's alcoholic mother proved unreliable.
She now insists that her granddaughter accomplish two things before Bassie
dies: Meg must read the six volumes of her great-grandmother's journals, and
she must accompany her grandmother to Pecos, where Bassie was born and lived
briefly before Hannah died of TB. To her ire, Bassie learns that the
visitor's center in Pecos, located near the site of the old Bass homestead,
plans to excavate Dog Hill, where the bones of her mother's pets are buried.
With the help of mild-mannered archaeologist Jim Layton, Bassie and Meg dig
up the dog bones in order to remove them. But what is a human skeleton doing
buried there? While this mystery unfolds, Meg plows through great swaths of
the journals, which make delightful reading as Hannah vividly describes her
work at the hotel and friendships with other waitresses. But they have a
darker side as well. Hannah's husband, engineer Elliott Bass, bore lifelong
emotional scars resulting from the murder of his family by Mormons during
the infamous Mountain Meadows wagon-train massacre in Utah. During their
marriage, Elliott traveled extensively, laying track for the fledgling
railroad, sending home detailed letters (also included) while Hannah
experienced a growing intellectual attraction to the son of a rich local
sheep-rancher.
A multilayered narrative of impressive historical perspicacity, enriched by
the author's loving attention to character.
Publishers Weekly
At age 37, Meg Mabry, a single, overworked medical engineer, still hasn't found her place in the world, a predicament due in part to her rejection of her heritage. She's the great-granddaughter of Hannah Bass, a woman whose journals about frontier life in New Mexico (dating 1891 to 1902) have become famous thanks to Meg's grandmother Claudia Bass (Bassie), a historian who built her career promoting the diaries. But Meg resents the domineering Bassie (who raised her) and refuses to read the journals, acoping strategy Crook doesn't make entirely credible. Meg finally delves into Hannah's story when she reluctantly accompanies her grandmother from Austin, Tex., to Pecos, N. Mex. There, a discovery at the burial site of Hannah's dogs calls into question the veracity of Bassie's life work. Meg, meanwhile, falls for archeologist Jim Layton and embarks on a journey into her family's past that will confront her with some difficult truths about herself. Excerpts from the journals punctuate the layered but sometimes unconvincingly plotted narrative, and the historical detail depicts the uneasy late 19th-century melding of Anglo, Native American and Mexican cultures. Crook's third novel (after Promised Lands) blends mystery, chick-lit-style romance and historical fiction for a glimpse of the current and past American West. (Feb. 6) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Meg is sick of her family history-great-grandmother Hannah was famed for diaries detailing her daring life on the frontier as a Harvey Girl and subsequently a railroad engineer's wife. But then Meg discovers that the diaries may not have been entirely truthful. With a six-city tour. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
From the Publisher
Sumptuous, surprise-filled . . . The Night Journal is near perfect, a beautifully restrained epic with nary a wasted word. (Texas Monthly)
Crook has a clear gift for detail and dialogue. . . . [T]here's plenty to keep you engaged and engrossed in The Night Journal. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
