‘Horse Whisperer’ author returns to the West with ‘The Brave’

Like a spider web, a net of sticky deceit and secrets is cast out to snare the cast of characters in Nicholas Evans' new book, “The Brave.”

For Tom Bedford, growing up in England as the son of older, eccentric parents, life holds little joy. There's always a hint of darkness and secrecy swirling around his odd family. He has secrets of his own, like the embarrassing problem of wetting the bed, a condition he just can't control even after he's sent off to a rather sadistic boarding school. The only bright spots in his young life are visits from his glamorous (and much older) actress sister Diane and his fascination with anything having to do with cowboys, Indians and the American West.

Suddenly life turns a little brighter when Diane shows up at his school on the arm of one of Tom’s idols, American cowboy television star Ray Montane. Diane announces that she and Ray are engaged and they are there to take Tom to Hollywood to live with them.

Diane’s engagement is not the only big news she has for her little brother — she reveals that she is not his sister at all, but actually his mother. She became pregnant with Tom as a teen and convinced her parents to raise the boy as their son.

Reeling from the news but happy to be leaving the sinister atmosphere of school, Tom adapts quickly to his new role as Diane’s son, not realizing that this will be just one of many secrets that will haunt him.

Tom thrives in the rare air of Hollywood as the adored stepson of Ray Montane, but the often violent relationship between Diane and Ray soon explodes, and Tom once more is thrown into an unfamiliar lifestyle.

Though reserved and suspicious of anything good, Tom's a tough kid with a strong will to survive. He moves to Montana, continuing his love affair with the West. He becomes a writer, marries and has a son. But true to form for Tom, the marriage fails and his relationship with his son is strained at best. It will be an unspeakable tragedy that causes the father and son to reunite and force Tom to confront all his secrets.

With “The Brave,” English author Evans revisits the American West in a fascinating story of family, secrets and bravery. Many will remember Evans for his 1995 novel “The Horse Whisperer,” which inspired the 1998 movie of the same name.

Traveling from the depressing English boarding school to the open plains of Montana to the battlefields of the Middle East, Evans calls upon his journalistic background, as well as his work as a film producer, to add realism to this story of one man and the chaos and turmoil which follow him throughout his life.