News of the World

An intriguing tale of the post-Civil War Southwest, the story concerns the travels of Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd from Wichita Falls, TX, to near San Antonio, where he hopes to return a recently recovered Indian captive to her family and reap a reward. Kidd earns meagre pay as an itinerant news reader to audiences in the small towns of Texas. Although the story is fiction, the author gives listeners some wonderful descriptions of the real Texas hill country and the dangers and rigors of frontier travel, including Indians, bandits, and would-be human traffickers. There's also much discussion about corrupt politicians, the desire for fame in big-city newspapers, and the fine line between moral and immoral conduct. Reader Grover Gardner's characterizations are convincing, and his timing and inflections are effective in conveying emotion.