The Return of Kid Cooper, Brad Smith
The Return of Kid Cooper, Brad Smith
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The Return of Kid Cooper
A Novel

Author: Brad Smith

Narrator: Milton Bagby

Unabridged: 10 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/01/2019

Synopsis

In the style of Cormac McCarthy, a gritty tale of justice and revenge in the Wild WestThe year is 1910.Nate Cooper is an old-school cowboy. He sees the change brought by the turn of the century—horses giving way to motorcars, his girlfriend marrying his best friend, and his nemesis running for governor—and reckons none of it to be good. The west is being tamed, and with progress, some things are lost. But people? They tend to stay the same. Even after spending nearly thirty years in a Montana prison for a wrongful murder conviction, Nate’s moral compass is true and unwavering: he does all the wrong things for all the right reasons.So when he returns to his northern Montana ranching town to find the Blackfoot Indians—the people he went to prison trying to defend—are still being cheated out of their territory by ranchers, Nate can’t rest on his laurels. With grit, determination, a quick trigger finger, and the help of the woman he used to love, Nate sets out to settle the score and force some justice in to the changing world. Before long, though, he will discover that justice doesn’t come cheap.

About Brad Smith

Brad Smith was born and raised in southern Ontario. He has worked as a farmer, signalman, insulator, truck driver, bartender, schoolteacher, maintenance mechanic, roofer, and carpenter. His novels include All Hat (a 2007 major motion picture staring Keith Carradine), Big Man Coming Down the Road, Busted Flush, Crow’s Landing, One-Eyed Jacks (nominated for the Dashiell Hammett Prize), Red Means Run, Rough Justice, and Shoot the Dog. He lives in the countryside outside Dunnville, Ontario, near the north shore of Lake Erie.

About Milton Bagby

Milton Bagby, winner of the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration in 2017 and an AudioFile Earphones Award, has done radio and TV commercials for over twenty years. In 2011 he began recording voice-overs for audiobooks and to date has recorded over forty books for Audible, ACX, Books in Motion, and Radio Archives, among others.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Paul on September 08, 2017

Brad Smith whisked me back in time over a century ago to the blue skies and grassy plains of Montana. I was swept along with a masterful description of life back in those days of long ago. What it was like. How it felt. Down to its greatest detail. The author vividly displayed life on the ranch, on......more

Goodreads review by Daniel on December 20, 2023

The Return of Kid Cooper takes place among the rural inhabitants of Montana in 1910. It’s a critical time for them. In the decades prior, life seemed to be constant and certain. The power structure started with the land owners and filtered its way down to the cows. By 1910, however, change was inevi......more

Goodreads review by M. on July 15, 2020

One of the most interesting and fun reads of the year. Not exactly great literature but certainly a well-written book deserving of praise. If a good western is what is missing from your life, this is a good place to start. Brad Smith obviously knows something about what he writes, and is gifted in h......more

Goodreads review by J.R. on January 14, 2018

Nate Cooper has his faults, as do all. Despite those faults--which are presented unvarnished throughout the narrative--Cooper has a true heart and compassion for others. And, in the end, as his ex-lover reflects, "That heart, flawed and fickle, did not make him a great man but it made him a good one......more

Goodreads review by Gretchen on October 11, 2021

This was my first audio book and I loved it! An excellent story with a wonderful ending. Not a necessarily happy ending, but a satisfying one. It was a story about a good man, not a great man, just a good one. The descriptions of the scenery and the action were well written. Superb depth of characte......more

Quotes

“The Return of Kid Cooper is Brad Smith at his best—clear-eyed, tough-minded and true of heart. Smith—once a farmer, signalman, truck driver, bartender, teacher and carpenter—understands that work will take its toll, even when it’s the only thing holding a soul together. This is a powerful novel, fully felt and beautifully written.” T. Jefferson Parker, New York Times bestselling author

“Men trapped outside their times—it was the great theme of Sam Peckinpah’s best movies, and Brad Smith makes it his own in his first-rate novel, The Return of Kid Cooper.” True West magazine

“The Return of Kid Cooper is a western set in the forgotten time between horses and the sterilizing of the American West. Kid Cooper is a classic tragic hero and Brad Smith’s rendering of him is full-hearted and poignant.” Dan O’Brien, author of Buffalo for the Broken Heart

“The Return of Kid Cooper can claim a secure place in the canon of literature of the American West. Brad Smith’s tale of old-fashioned courage and western justice is reminiscent, in its high drama, wit, and splendid idiosyncrasy, of Lonesome Dove. I was reminded also of Annie Proulx’s laconic Wyoming stories and that most iconic of Western loners, Shane.” John Hough, Jr., author of Little Bighorn

“Smith explores powerful universal themes while bringing to life unforgettable characters…If Cormac McCarthy, Larry McMurtry, and Elmore Leonard collaborated on a book, it might sound very much like The Return of Kid Cooper." D. B. Jackson, winner of the Western Heritage Award and author of Slow Moving Parts.

“Brad Smith can really tell a story…pulling the Western into this new era with heartbreaking intensity, where tenderness and threat exist in every character and on every page.” Bart Paul, author of See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

Awards

  • Spur Award
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