{"product_id":"9780547524139","title":"The Whipping Boy","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn “engaging” novel of hardship, danger, and frontier adventure in the Oklahoma Territory at the end of the nineteenth century (\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The Oklahoma Territory is a bleak, brutal place in 1894, especially for Tom Freshour, a half-Indian who knows nothing of the world beyond the orphanage where he’s been raised by a sadistic minister who forces him to bear witness to a botched public hanging. But Tom is about to get a bracing education, thanks especially to two people: Jake Jaycox, an aging hardware salesman who takes Tom under his wing, and Samantha King, a beautiful, mysterious woman who attaches herself to the two men and promptly seduces Tom.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The adventures of this colorful trio begin with a horrific flood—but the story turns darker when Tom and his companions run afoul of a scheme to steal thousands of acres from depression-ravaged farmers. Before long, they are being chased by a hired killer—and Tom’s searing memories of his childhood drive him back to the orphanage and a violent confrontation with the man who made him a whipping boy. As Tom learns more about the world around him, he suspects that the real villains in this unforgiving territory may not be the outlaws with six-guns, but the businessmen who will do anything to amass wealth and property.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A rollicking page-turner. I read it once with a fierce compulsion to find out what would happen, a second time for the pleasure of the language and craft.” —Wally Lamb, author of \u003ci\u003eShe’s Come Undone\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Here is the real West in its lurid twilight—the Oklahoma Indian Territory when the last land grab was under way. Here too is a good mystery [and] a bawdy romance. . . . Every vignette of frontier life—flood, train wreck, blizzard, bank, brother, or church—is authentic.” —Will Baker, author of \u003ci\u003eHell, West, and Crooked\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Brings alive the pain and shame of a little-read chapter of history, when greed ruled, thievery wore a frock coat, and guile was the governing virtue.” —Charles Gusewelle, columnist, \u003ci\u003eThe Kansas City Star\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Houghton Mifflin Harcourt","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47123825131760,"sku":"9780547524139","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780547524139_p0.jpg?v=1763715589","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780547524139","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}