Review: Ghosts of Gannaway

Ghosts of Gannaway by Stuart R. West
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: THE GHOSTS OF GANNAWAY by Stuart R. West

I so admire novels that encapsulate expanded moral and social issues while delivering excellent characterization and suspenseful plotting. I give you THE GHOSTS OF GANNAWAY, a novel of history (1929, 1935; and 1969) and of individuals, families, social movements; and the Supernatural.

In 1969, the U S. Corps of Engineers sends an environmental scientist to tiny, almost abandoned Gannaway, Kansas, to test the potential toxicity of the soil, water table, and air. Gannaway appears practically a ghost town (in multiple senses), stores and homes collapsing, dust-ridden, scarcely a semblance of life--except for the expansive home of the man who "made" Gannaway, mine company owner Kyle Gannaway, who opened mines there and founded the community in the 1920's.

Author West also interweaves a plot line which occurs in 1929, and continues in 1935--deep in the Great Depression, in the fiery throes of beginning attempts at unionization and rights for workers. Readers who know anything about the Harlan, Kentucky, unionization tragedies of the 1930's, or such attempts at other mines, will find resonance in the ideals and efforts of young Tommy Donnelly, ground boss at a Gannaway mine, as he diligently strives to make the wealthy company owner "see sense." But Kyle Gannaway and his right-hand man are terrifyingly inhuman individuals, totally devoid of compassion, empathy, or just plain human feeling.

In 1969, the environmental scientist and an elderly Native American, Ahanu ("Bob"), combine forces to uncover the truth, all the truths, about Gannaway' s evil past and toxic present, to settle the ghosts of Gannaway, and to cope with its environmental future.

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