Finished audio 12-22-11, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2010

Unabridged audio 9 hours.  Narrated by Jonathan Hogan.

This is the sequel to The Whistling Season, but is a perfectly fine stand alone novel.

Morrie Morgan shows up in Butte, Montana in the early 1900’s, without friends, a job, or even a change of clothes.  He finds work as funeral crier and a place to live with a widow and two boarders and begins to carve out a life for himself while running from his past. 

Butte is a mining city and Anaconda Copper company owns the city, much to the miners dismay.  Morrie starts working at the library and is mistaken for an instigator by Anaconda goons and is forced to take sides.  He sides with his new friends and goes a step further by helping the union workers find ammunition to use against the company.

There is a nice story and it moves along at a good pace.  I appreciated the lyrcal and humorous writing.  The slyness kept the story fresh.  The story of the big company versus the minions is very topical and added an extra layer of recognition to the story.

I loved the narration.  Hogan had a Steve Martin quality to his voice that I loved.  He really made me think that I could hang out with Morrie for a while.  At least before he took off to parts unknown again.

I enjoyed this visit to Montana.

I checked this audio out of the library.