A Dust Bowl Tale of Bonnie and Clyde — James Lee Burke

From James Lee Burke, called America's best novelist by The Denver Post , comes a brand new e-short about a young man's encounter with the infamous Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrowa story that becomes the first chapter in Burke's upcoming novel Wayfaring Stranger . Sixteen-year-old Weldon Holland has had to grow up fast as he tries to support his family in the aftermath of the agricultural disaster of the Dust Bowl. One night, a carload of strangers appears on the Hollands' property, carrying the air of incipient danger underneath a veneer of pleasantries. Weldon finds himself inexplicably drawn to the group of trespassing vagabondswho, despite being camped out on a hidden riverbank in the middle of nowhere, drive the most expensive automobile that Weldon has ever seen. In the unbearable, rainless heat of a Dust Bowl summer, Weldon will find himself mixed up in an encounter with the infamous bank robbers Bonnie and Clydean encounter that changes the course of Weldon's lifeand history itself. Rich with criminal and social history of the American West and a young boy's struggle to become a man, A Dust Bowl Tale of Bonnie and Clyde is just the beginning of Weldon Holland's story.