Kim Zupan Buries Up The Ploughmen

The Ploughmen by Kim Zupan is a bleak and haunting novel that brings together a brutally adept and aging killer with a venerable and lonely sheriff's deputy in Copper Country, Montana. Between the bars of a county jail cell, these two men forge an unlikely bond as killer John Gload begins to tell his guard Valentine Millimaki about his sociopathic tendencies.

Millimaki, surprisingly introspective and thoughtful, initially begins listening to the 70-something killer as a means to draw out confessions and close open cases that had plagued Montana and other law enforcement agencies for years. But as time wears on before the killer can be brought to trial, Millimaki begins to seek counsel from the wise and unflappable man.

The Ploughmen seizes on an uneasy bond between a criminal and jailor.

After Millimaki draws the night shift as the sheriff's newest recruit, he discovers that Gload's insomnia is the only place he will find any solace during the the long hours of solitude. And as the two men exchange stories, they eventually find common ground in their appreciation for both farming and nature.

On one hand, these two men could not be more different. Gload, who confesses to committing his first murder at 14, turned away from farming and toward a life of crime after deciding he never had to do a day's worth of honest work again. Millimaki, on the other hand, turned away from it to escape a haunting memory of his mother hanging herself in the family barn. And in other, they recognize one in the same as ploughmen — one who tills the earth to bury his victims and the other who digs them up.

As the two men draw figuratively closer, Millimaki begins to confide in Gload about his failing marriage. Without missing a beat, the old man begins to give the deputy advice on which deputies to be weary of for one reason or another. Such exchanges become increasing valuable to both men until it becomes increasingly unclear whether or not Gload is sincere in his sentiment or indoctrinating an impressionable young deputy much like he did the boy who accompanied him on a series of murders that open the book.

Eventually, the novel does take a turn toward violence. All the cards are laid out: whether Gload is baiting or protecting the deputy, whether Millimaki has begun to envy the prisoner as a man of action, whether this person or that person will be brutally murdered for their carelessness in crossing paths with either man.

A few more graphs about author Kim Zupan.

A native Montanan, Zupan lives in Missoula and grew up in and around Great Falls, where much of The Ploughmen is set. For 25 years, he made a living as a carpenter while pursuing another passion — writing fiction.

Zupan has plenty of experiences to draw upon for his work. He has also worked as a smelter man, pro rodeo bareback rider, ranch hand, Alaska salmon fisherman and teacher. He currently teaches carpentry at Missoula College and holds an MFA from the University of Montana.

As a debut novel, Zupan hits the mark in allowing the relationship between the two men to happen on its own terms. Where he misses a beat or two is the opening chapters when Zupan sets the vastness of Montana at the feet of his readers with passages that meander on beautifully but not poignantly. It isn't until a few chapters in where he finds the right pace to the story as well as the stories that lead up to this one.

The Ploughmen By Kim Zupan Buries 7.4 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

Kim Zupan tackles the last remnants of the American West at a time when civilization wanted to master its vastness and outlaw highwaymen like Gload no longer had a place. And he tackles it with an exerted command for the language and fully realized, masterful characters who are equally capable of earning sympathy as much as disdain.

The Ploughmen: A Novel by Kim Zupan is available on Amazon. You can also download the novel for iBooks or listen to the audiobook via iTunes. The story is narrated by Jim Meskimen, who brings both characters to life within the rugged landscape of Montana. Barnes & Noble also carries The Ploughman by Kim Zupan.

Rawhide Down Revisits A Near Fatal Day In History

March 30, 1981 will be forever known for its tragedies and triumphs. It is the same day that a deranged man shot President Ronald Reagan in an attempt to gain the attention of actress Jodie Foster.

It was also a day of heroics — at the scene and in the operating room — that tested a nation before it rallied together.

Anyone old enough to watch television remembers the video clips. Anyone who wasn't old enough has probably seen the clips since. Others have seen the film, The Day Reagan Was Shot, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Richard Crenna, and Yannick Bisson.

None of it compares to the precision and detail of Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan by Del Quentin Wilber.

Set for release this March, the book reveals details that have never been made public before. To uncover them, Wilber conducted exhaustive interviews with the people involved, including medical staff, law enforcement, and the Secret Service.

He then delivers a riveting minute-by-minute account of what transpired and how close the President actually came to dying. It was much closer than anyone thought.

What Happened On March 30, 1981?

The day started out like any other, with an afternoon speaking engagement planned for Reagan. Everything had started as planned. At 1:45 p.m. a limo carrying the Reagan departs the White House and heads for the Washington Hilton, where he is to give the speech. At 2:03 p.m., he gives his speech to members of the AFL-CIO. At 2:25 p.m., the speech concludes.

And then, shortly after, everything changed. At 2:27 p.m., Reagan is shot as he leaves a back entrance of the hotel. Agent Jerry Parr shoves the president into the limo, and it speeds away. And the shooter is captured immediately.


At 2:30 p.m., the limo arrives at George Washington University Hospital, and Reagan insists on walking in under his own power. He is having trouble breathing, but still doesn’t know he has been shot. Shortly after walking into the hospital, he collapses.

It takes a full five minutes before the doctors notice a very small half-inch slit under the president’s armpit. At 2:57 p.m., Reagan is wheeled into the operating room. But by this time, he has lost nearly half of the blood in his body.

As the president nearly dies, the world becomes unhinged.

President Reagan, whom the Secret Service had code named Rawhide, is the only serving U. S. president to survive being shot in an assassination attempt. Also shot (but not killed) were James Brady, Reagan’s press secretary; Thomas Delahanty, a DC police officer who acted courageously during the gunfire; and Tim McCarthy, the Secret Service agent who heroically turned his body to put himself between the gunman and the president.

While Wilber reveals the drama playing out inside the hospital, he also accounts for the equally frightening drama unfolding inside the White House Situation Room. Cabinet members, including Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Secretary of State Alexander Haig, had gathered to discuss what to do. And the questions they asked put the United States at the brink.

Who has the nuclear football? Who’s in charge until Vice President George H. W. Bush returns from Dallas? Should the military be ready for potential action? What should we tell the public, the world? What about Soviet subs patrolling unusually close to the United States? And what if the Soviets, sensing a lapse in leadership, invade Poland?

A Brief About Del Quentin Wilber.

Wilber is a reporter for the Washington Post and no stranger to covering sensitive security issues and law enforcement. In fact, it was shortly after he was promoted to cover the federal courts that Wilber took his craft to the next level, chronicling the the trial of former Senator Ted Stevens and writing about the complicated issues surrounding the detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Throughout his career, his work as a reporter earned Wilber the Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting in 2004, and he has been a Pulitzer Price finalist. He got the idea to write Rawhide Down shortly after attending a hearing for the would-be assassin and being handed the gun by an FBI agent who kept it in his drawer. Wilber currently lives in Washington D.C., with his his wife and two children

Rawhide Down By Del Quentin Wilber Turns The World Upside Down With 9 On the Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

This might seem an unusual pick at first glance, but Wiber does a masterful job at piecing together the events and provides a lucid and gripping tale of what happened. At the same time, he demonstrates the real talent of an objective journalist, pulling all of it off without a hint of political or personal bias that could color the account. He has also gone to great lengths to provide more documentation on the Rawhide Down website.

Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan is available on Amazon for preorder. The book will be released on March 15. It will also be available as an audiobook on CD. This review is based on an advance reader's copy from Henry Holt and Co.