| Advance Praise for GLORIETA PASS | Reviews |
|
"Based on a great deal of research, P.G. Nagle tells the little-known story of the Civil War in the Far West in such a manner that the reader is both informed and caught up in the rough-edged lives and frontier environment that shaped the bitter campaign between Union regulars and volunteers and Confederate Texans in New Mexico Territory of 1862."
--Don E. Alberts, Ph.D., author of The Battle of Glorieta: Union Victory in the West and Rebels on the Rio Grande
"P.G. Nagle has captured both the spirit and characters involved in a tiny war within the most deadly war in history. No one ever thinks of Glorieta Pass or New Mexico or the Colorado Volunteers as being part of the Civil War. Nagle brings a little-known bit of brutal yet touching history to life, painting moving portraits with carefully chosen words. Glorieta Pass never loses focus. One hell of a great read!"
--Fred Bean, author of Black Gold and Eden
"P.G. Nagle has that rare ability to transport a reader through time, to make history come alive. Glorieta Pass is at once historically faithful and romantic, moving and brutal, enchanting and thrilling. Its engaging characters, vivid, eloquent descriptions of the American Southwest, and riveting battle scenes made it impossible to put down."
--David B. Coe, Ph.D.
"I thought I was pretty well informed about the Civil War. But Glorieta Pass is a surprise from beginning to end. Not only is the history startling, the story is told by some of the most engaging characters I've encountered in a long time. I especially liked O'Brien--but I found the women equally interesting."
--Thomas Fleming, author of The Officers' Wives
"Glorieta Pass is a crackling good story with its climax in the Civil War battle of Glorieta Pass, often called "the Gettysburg of the West." Through the protagonists and the narrative the author provides a vivid portrait of the Southwest frontier in the first years of the Civil War."
--James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom
"Glorieta Pass is a vivid portrait of love and war, filled with strong feeling and complex characters. This is a novel that satisfies on every level, and leaves the reader with a true sense of time and place. I'm certain we'll see much more from P.G. Nagle, a talented young writer with a keen eye for dimension and detail."
--Earl Murray, author of The River at Sundown
"Strong characters you can't help but like, a feel for both the times and the terrain of the old Southwest and plenty of action--P.G. Nagle has written a bell-ringer!"
--David Nevin, author of 1812
"A grand adventure in the classic style--a treat for everyone who loves stories about the American West or the Civil War."
--Will Shetterly, author of Dogland
"Without a doubt, P.G. Nagle has a brilliant future as a historical writer. Glorieta Pass moves fast and holds the reader's interest. It rings of truth."
--Don Wright
From Publishers Weekly, August 31, 1998
"This engrossing debut dramatizes the preamble to the 1862 battle . . . at Glorieta Pass, just outside Santa Fe, N.Mex. . . . Nagle's tidy prose evokes memorable protagonists, vivid landscapes and high suspense, not only in the gut-wrenching action but also in the relationships between her characters."
--Publishers Weekly
From Booklist, September 1, 1998:
"Nagle . . . displays a fine grasp of historical fact and military strategy. . . . a well-done, very readable historical novel."
--Jay Freeman (Copyright © 1998, American Library Association. All rights reserved)
From Kirkus, October 1, 1998
"Glorieta Pass, the first of at least two volumes on the campaign, is an impeccably researched novel with a sure feel for the arid landscapes of New Mexico. Readers with an enthusiasm for Civil War fiction will find this a strong work."
---Kirkus Reviews , October 1, 1998 (Copyright © 1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.)
From The Albuquerque Journal, June 6, 1999
"Really a book about relationships, not war, Glorieta Pass is worth reading for the skillfully plausible braiding of a half-dozen lives as they are drawn together by New Mexico's major Civil War battle . . . . Despite the doomed atmosphere of wartime narratives, Nagle develops each character with sympathy tempered by a sharp eye for human foibles. . . . Nagle succeeds where it counts, in emotional resonance and truly magnetic storytelling."
---Charles Poling (Copyright ©1999, Albuquerque Journal. All rights reserved.)
"In her first novel, New Mexico's P.G. Nagle proves herself a whiz as a comber of Civil War documents and other sources that tell of how the war was actually fought. . . . Nagle, with unrelenting battlefield specifics, brings the glamorizers up short. Hers is another, still needed, reminder that the Civil War, West or East, was more a horror than a glory."
--Virginia-Pilot & Ledger-Star, Norfolk, Virginia
"P.G. Nagle is a skilled writer who is able to combine an engaging array of characters with precise historical research, thus creating a tale that holds the reader's interest to the end."
--El Paso Scene Online