It doesn’t get much better than this. I’ve read several novels since THE WINTER FAMILY --- and make no mistake, all were good, some great --- and I still felt Clifford Jackman’s dark and haunting prose echoing and resonating in the background. It even gave me nightmares. This may sound twisted, but that’s a standard of top-notch writing, and the book is shot through with it.

THE WINTER FAMILY is a work of historical fiction, set across a period of roughly 30-plus years from the mid-1860s to the turn of the 20th century. One is tempted to call it a western, even though so much of it takes place east of the Mississippi, but the themes are both timeless and (for those of us in the early days of the 21st century) timely. The Winter Family of the piece is a gang of soldiers, mercenaries, outlaws, whatever you want to call them. The titles change with the situation and the times, but the core qualities that make the aggregation what it is --- effective, dangerous and deadly --- never change.

"Jackman is a master wordsmith who infuses his narrative with a dark cinematic quality that propels the story. You may want to look away at times, but you can’t because you have to keep reading."

The Family is led, appropriately enough, by a dead-eyed man named Augustus Winter, whose dark core is revealed, tested and honed in the later days of the Civil War under the command of William T. Sherman. It is during the Union Army’s infamous March to the Sea that the seeds that become the Winter Family take root, as a dangerous killer named Quentin Ross and the hair-raising Empire brothers coalesce with Winter to become a scourge upon the countryside. Giving shelter and succor to a notorious and wanted ex-slave named Fred Johnson, their actions are too much even for the scorched earth policies of the Union Army. Worse, they become an instrument unto themselves during Reconstruction, a period in which they engage in a starkly brutal method of interrogation in order to ferret out members of the notorious Ku Klux Klan.

The stark brutality of the deeds of the Winter Family is such that they find themselves wanted by their employer. The group is given a chance for amnesty --- one that is offered to all but Winter himself --- when in 1872 they are asked by President Grant through an intermediary to use their rough methods to ensure the honesty of the election results in Chicago, where what eventually became the Democrat political machine is using illegal immigration, repeater voting, bribery and voter intimidation to secure victory. All that the Winter Family has to do is subdue their baser instincts during the runup. The result must be read to be believed. On the run afterwards, they go west for what eventually becomes a final stand. Or is it? The enigmatic ending is one that will haunt readers for days.

It is difficult to recommend THE WINTER FAMILY to everyone without reservation due to the subject matter and the graphic, almost nihilistic, actions contained within. Speaking for myself, I loved every word of it. Jackman is a master wordsmith who infuses his narrative with a dark cinematic quality that propels the story. You may want to look away at times, but you can’t because you have to keep reading. Comparisons to Cormac McCarthy and George Gilman are more than appropriate for different reasons. And for those graphic novel fanboys out there, THE WINTER FAMILY will remind you of the best incarnations of Jonah Hex without the artwork. And Winter himself? You will wake up in the middle of the night, wondering if his descendants, spiritual and otherwise, are still out there. Wonder no more.