Magnolia City

By: Duncan W. Alderson

Narrated by: Dan John Miller

Houston in the 1920s is a city of established cotton kings and newly rich oil barons, where the elite live in beaux art mansions behind the gates of Courtlandt Place. Kirby Augustus Allen, grandson of the Allen brothers who founded Houston as a real estate deal, is grooming his daughter Hetty to marry Lamar Rusk, scion of the Splendora oil fortune. Instead, at the No-Tsu-Oh Carnival of 1928, beautiful, rebellious Hetty encounters a mysterious man from Montana dressed in the gear of a wildcatter - an outsider named Garret MacBride.

Hetty is torn between Lamar's lavish courtship and her instinctive connection to Garret. As Lamar's wife, she would be guaranteed acceptance to the highest ranks of Houston society. Yet Garret, poor but powerfully ambitious, offers the adventure she craves, with rendezvous in illicit jazz clubs and reckless nights of passion. The men's intense rivalry extends to business, as rumors of a vast, untapped ocean of oil in East Texas spark a frenzy that can make fortunes - or shatter lives and dreams beyond repair.

©2014 Duncan W. Alderson (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Alderson's debut novel plays like smooth jazz." ( Harper's Bazaar)

I didn't want the book to end!

Would you consider the audio edition of Magnolia City to be better than the print version?

It is great to hear the voices.

Which character – as performed by Dan John Miller – was your favorite?

Heddy.....he did a great job managing the spanish, too.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I wanted to savor it!

Any additional comments?

Great story. I am 7th generation Houstonian and the writer did a great job researching the story. Lovely and it captured the history and richness. Superb!

Men should not read books with women leads.

Seriously listening to this whole story about a women trying to find herself read by a man was truly disappointing. Kinda ruined it for me

The prohibition

I love this book. The story captured my attention and made me want to hear more about this time in history.

Narrators should speak the languages they are reading!

There is a LOT of Spanish in this book and the narrator pronounces it incorrectly throughout. There are error even those with an intermediate level of Spanish would not make. In a book where ample dialogue in Spanish happens, this is a huge mistake.

Spanish pronunciation matters

Would you consider the audio edition of Magnolia City to be better than the print version?

No. I think it's important to be sure the narrator can pronounce the Spanish correctly in a book so heavily laden with it.

Did Dan John Miller do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Pretty good, but he needed coaching in Spanish.