Stephen Kelman
"Robert Lautner has written a compelling, poetic page-turner that really impresses with its precision and heart. . . . In Thomas Walker and Henry Stands he has created characters who live in the memory long after the book is closed. In their relationship I read hope, and honor: a boy seeking his father and a man finding the father within him."
Michael Korda
Remarkable … A novel about a young man reaching for manhood after the killing of his father and about the invention and selling of Col. Samuel Colt's revolving pistol, and the way it changed the West. Those who love True Grit will love this."
Silas House
"Road to Reckoning is a rare feat of storytelling. Robert Lautner has created something truly wonderful in the character of Thomas Walker—whose steady, strong voice I won't soon forget—and the vivid world he inhabits. This is a literary thriller in the best sense, simultaneously gritty and tender, rousing and lyrical."
St. Louis-Post Dispatch
Lautner’s ear for dialogue and eye for detail [are] so remarkable. . . . We’re indebted to Lautner for a dandy story.
Free Lance-Star
A novel you won’t soon forget. . . Provides a harrowing glimpse into a period of America that history books have tended to neglect.
The Times (UK)
A thrilling, violent, dangerous piece of old-fashioned storytelling, that is also humane and unshowily moving.
Library Journal
An interesting tale from an unusual era . . . Great stuff. Lautner manages character maturation sans the usual sentiment associated with wide-eyed narration. It’s also a superior historical novel offering an unexpectedly keen window to a dim corner of American history.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Best Book of 2014)
A St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best Book of the Year
Like "True Grit,” this novel stars a youngster who travels across the Wild West with a crusty adult. But this tale’s hero is a boy, and the author’s eye for detail and ear for dialogue show the large amount of research that a good novelist will undertake.
The Oklahoman
Lautner knows how to a turn a phrase, and his novel is a delight to read, to pause and go back, and read again just to feel the flavor of the words as they move forward off the tongue. I am interested in seeing what he writes next.
Oxford Royale Academy
If you love famous westerns like All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy or Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry you must read Robert Lautner’s Road to Reckoning.
Penthouse Magazine
Tailor-made for the movies (think True Grit). . . . Lautner’s swiftly moving tale reanimates a forgotten era and location in American history.
Joshua Ferris
"As simply told tales go, this is one of the best. It shares with its hero a plain eloquence and a determination and a grace rare in the world and in books. Give Road to Reckoning to every man you know and they'll thank you for it.
Historical Novels Review
A well-written literary novel. . . . I could picture the events happening as if I were watching a movie. . . . [Lautner] has shown the land and people of early 19th-century pioneer America with historical accuracy. It will probably be on my list of the top 10 books I’ve read this year.
Publishers Weekly
Lautner impresses . . . with a crackling coming-of-age revenge tale set in the lawless wilderness of pre-Civil War Pennsylvania. . . . Thomas recounts these formative events of his youth through the hindsight of adulthood with wisdom that makes him an appealing narrator with a knack for a poetic turn of phrase. The descriptions of the wilderness and cities of 19th century Pennsylvania feel particularly alive and specific. . . . The story is a comforting pleasure with many rewards.
Kirkus Reviews
"Twisty, gripping. . . Robust. . . Wears its meticulous research lightly."
Booklist
"Lautner's is a tale of guns and grit that will remind most readers of Charles Portis' modern classic True Grit, with Henry Stands a stand-in for Rooster Cogburn. None of this is to discount the frontier charm of Road to Reckoning or the appealing voice of its protagonist, Thomas, a worthy successor to Mattie Ross."
Simon Winchester
"This quiet triumph of a novel, a sad and impeccably nuanced tale set against a finely drawn landscape of early pioneer America, left me just amazed and delighted; it will surely establish Robert Lautner as a storyteller of the first order."
Kathleen Grissom
"Not a single needless word in Road to Reckoning, a beautiful gem of a novel, exquisitely written and swiftly plotted. Featuring an unforgettable character on a hero's journey, it packs an old-fashioned emotional wallop."
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
[Road to Reckoning] is drawing inevitable comparisons to Charles Portis’ True Grit. . . . What the two books most have in common is elegant writing and an air of historical authenticity. . . . Unforgettable characters give the book an unexpected staying power.
Booklist
"Lautner's is a tale of guns and grit that will remind most readers of Charles Portis' modern classic True Grit, with Henry Stands a stand-in for Rooster Cogburn. None of this is to discount the frontier charm of Road to Reckoning or the appealing voice of its protagonist, Thomas, a worthy successor to Mattie Ross."
Penthouse Magazine
Tailor-made for the movies (think True Grit). . . . Lautner’s swiftly moving tale reanimates a forgotten era and location in American history.
Kirkus Reviews
2013-11-03
On the road in 1830s Pennsylvania, a boy comes of age with brutal suddenness; a twisty, gripping first novel from British author Lautner. Thomas is a bookish only child in Manhattan, home-schooled by his aunt. Everything changes for the 12-year-old narrator in 1837. His mother dies of smallpox, and the financial panic forces his father, a mild-mannered salesman of eyeglasses, to visit the young Samuel Colt's firearms company. (Colt's pernicious influence haunts the work.) Thomas' dad will take orders for pistols, traveling with horse and wagon through Pennsylvania settlements before venturing further West. Their expedition ends when a ruffian, Thomas Heywood, and three trashy accomplices follow father and son to their camp, take their guns and money, and shoot the father dead. The boy returns to the store where they met Heywood to report the murder and runs into the redoubtable Henry Stands. The hell-raising, gun-loving old timer was once a ranger; his latest mission is to round up escaped prisoners for a price. A good man or a bad? Thomas, reeling from the actions of a villain, must now learn there are shades of gray. Henry ignores the boy's plight, but Thomas is persistent, and Henry becomes his reluctant protector. The pairing may remind readers of the grizzled curmudgeon and needy youngster in Charles Portis' True Grit and its two movie versions, but this novel does not have the straightforward trajectory of the revenge quest. Thomas just wants to go home; Henry is after his bounty. Then Heywood and company ambush them, and Henry has a score to settle. In a further complication, Thomas is threatened with removal to an orphan asylum. There will be two shootouts, with different sets of adversaries, but Lautner offers more than action. There's a quiet, exquisite moment when Henry, preparing a rabbit for their dinner, stoically recalls his son, who died in infancy. Despite some loose ends and an unsatisfying framing device, a robust debut that wears its meticulous research lightly.
