In 1937, Valentine Montgomery Welch III, a young artist from Virginia, is hired to paint a mural in the new post office in Dawes, WY—a WPA project. He is offered free room and board at the Long Shot ranch owned by John Long, a man with political ambitions, and his beautiful young wife, Eve. All goes well until a couple months later Eve runs off, taking a valuable Renoir painting with her, and Long asks Val to search for her. The hunt takes Val back and forth across the US—to the Hooverville shacks of Seattle to the swamps of Florida and finally to the nightclubs of San Francisco.

There is much to love about this new novel of historical fiction set during the waning days of the Great Depression. Val’s artwork is influenced by his admiration of Diego Rivera and Thomas Hart Benton’s murals of everyday working people and perhaps their socialist ideation as well as Val quite often expresses his socialist views during discussions with the people he meets along the way. The story has quite the ‘noir’ feel to it, capturing that era’s violence simmering just below the surface. But Frazier’s love of nature also shines through with his beautiful descriptions of the American landscape through the artist’s eyes. I particularly liked the cover art and the way the title 'the trackers' had different meanings throughout the story.

I received an arc of this new novel from the author and publisher via NetGalley. Many thanks for the opportunity. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

This book about an artist who travels to Wyoming to paint a mural in a post office during the 1930's started strong. I liked the setting, the descriptions, and the characters. However once the plot left the Wyoming ranch, it did not hold my interest as much as the beginning. An interesting read that fell a bit flat for me.

The Trackers by Charles Frazier is highly recommended historical fiction set during the Great Depression.

In 1937 Val Welch, an artist with the WPA (Works Progress Administration of the New Deal), is commissioned to paint a mural inside the post office of Dawes, Wyoming. He has been given a contact in the area, wealthy rancher John Long and his wife, Eve, who are also providing a cabin for Welch to live in during his stay. The first person Welch meets on the ranch is Faro, a tough but well seasoned cowboy right out of the old West. When he meets the Longs he is surprised to see older Long is married to a glamorous young woman who used to be a singer in a traveling band and before that a hobo. Long has political aspirations while Eve is less than thrilled with the idea of that life. When Eve takes off one day with a valuable painting, Long hires Welch to find her, which sends him on a cross country journey.

The quality of the descriptive writing is beautiful, and some of the philosophical monologues by various characters are interesting. Frazier does a commendable job portraying life during the Great Depression. I especially enjoyed the discussion about preparation, planning and painting the mural using tempera paint.

The characters are all portrayed as realistic, unique individuals but also tend toward caricatures of a type of person - ambitious wealthy man, old wise man, sensitive artist, beautiful woman. Admittedly, the characters are also very different from each other. All the males characters love Eve, but there is no real reason for this other than she is an enigma and a beautiful woman.

The novel started out strong and then began to lose my interest. There are a few drawbacks. The lack of quotation marks is troublesome at times and the plot didn't always hold my interest and attention. The idea that Long would send a painter off as a detective to find Eve never really made sense, no matter how it was explained. Read this for the quality of the writing rather than the plot.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, Edelweiss, and Amazon.

The Trackers is a well written work of fiction, full of the author’s beautifully descriptive passages. His writing is solid creating richly developed characters. Charles Frazier is known for incorporating history in his story telling, this one takes place during the Great Depression era American West in the 1930’s. There is much humor spread through the book. One of my favorite parts in the book involved an airplane ride across the country…in the 1930’s, holy cow, it was harrowing to say the least.

A downside to The Trackers was the lack of quotation marks which made it occasionally confusing, taking the narrative more into a stream of consciousness realm. Usually that is not something that would bother me, but I did find myself rereading passages to make sure I knew who was talking.

Charle Frazier’s The Trackers is a good read, a solid book club choice.

This was a slower story but has lots of human relationships in it.
I always am drawn to a story with art and while this centered around a painter and was told from his POV, I really felt the story was about Eve, the women he ends up searching for.

This time period was interesting, set during The Great Depression but centered around characters with money. The story build as slow but literary and enjoyable. I like this author and find his books to be a refreshing change of pace from the fast thrillers everyone reads.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Trackers (ARC)
Author: Charles Frazier
Source: NetGalley
Pub. Date: April 11, 2023
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Charles Frazier is a favorite author of mine, and his new book, The Trackers, was set in 1935 during the tenure of FDR and the Great Depression. This is a juicy story of a time in history that is underserved. The lead protagonist is Val Welch, an artist hired by the WPA to create a mural for the new post office in Dawes, Wyoming. The WPA is described as follows:

“The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was an ambitious employment and infrastructure program created by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, during the bleakest days of the Great Depression.” (Wiki). Over 1,000 murals were painted, and many still exist today.  

Val is an artist awarded a plum position in Wyoming, and his benefactors are a local politician John Long and his wife, Eve. The Longs relationship is murky because Eve is a source of fascination for the men of Hawes. Even Val cannot escape her allure, and Mr. Long is a jealous man. I found the process of painting the mural interesting, and Val paints the “old” West as it is being settled. When Eve disappears and runs away from John Long, Val is pulled into a search party to find her and bring her back home. Val is now in a precarious position looking for a woman he has feelings for, and he finds himself in grave danger. This story is full of mystery, secrets, and love triangles. This was an exciting time in history featuring a dicey cast of characters. Well done. #historicalfiction #depression #FDR #historical #WPA #murals #postoffice #art #loveaffairs #mystery #wildwest #literaryfiction #thriller
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I received a complimentary copy of this ARC. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to Ecco Press, NetGalley, and the author for the opportunity to read this book. Pub. Date: April 11, 2023. @netgalley @eccopress #charlesfrazier #TheTrackers #beautifulcover
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#book #books #bookaddict #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookstagramer #bookshelf #booksbooksbooks #readersofinstagram #reader #booklove #bookreader #reader

I have thoughts about this book, but I also don't know where to start or really what to say.

We follow Val, an artist who ends up in Wyoming painting a mural at one of their post offices. From there, he stays at and meets a wealthy farm owner, Long and his wife Eve. At some point, Eve just vanishes and Long pays Val to go find her. So this is an adventure story, a slice of life(?), with some commentary in it about art, politics, relationships, the past.

I just didn't care to be honest. I didn't connect with any of these characters. The sequence of events was just kind of weird to me? Somehow Val traveled from Seattle to Florida and back to California and located Eve. You know, just traveling multiple times cross country and stumbling into the bar she's working at. Maybe I'm just being cynical. But even aside from this, by the end I felt like nothing was resolved and that we went on this journey for nothing. There's a climactic event at the end that doesn't have an explanation. So the ending also felt empty to me.

All in all, I wasn't disliking this enough to DNF it because I was still intrigued. At the same time, when I finished it I couldn't help but think... what was the point of the past 300 pages?

Thank you to netgalley for the e-arc.

Loved the Yellowstone National Park setting. We plan to visit later this year and loved being immersed in the beauty of the landscape.

The main character in the story is a park ranger. I'm not sure how to describe the book without giving away the plot and providing spoilers.

Thank you to NetGalley for once again introducing me to a "new to me" author. Thank you to NetGalley, Charles Frazier the author and Ecco the publisher for approving my request to review the advance read copy in exchange for an honest review. Publication date is 11 April 2023.

This one was a struggle for me, I honestly didn’t find the storyline very intriguing or captivating. It did not keep my attention or encourage me to keep reading. Very descriptive, excellently written for the time period. Valentine is hired to paint a mural at the post office in a small Wyoming town, and he is given room and board on a ranch where Eve and her husband long live. Eve takes off and somehow valentine is talked into trying to track her down.

I wish I could have studied this book in high school, which is a sentence that has never once crossed my mind before but kept bouncing around my head while reading The Trackers.

This novel is equal parts intimate and expansive, quiet and majestic. I found myself hypnotized by the eccentric and efficient little ensemble of characters who populate this delicately optimistic post-Depression America, but blown away by our similarly optimistic and pensive protagonist Val Welch, who is a marvel of sparse but potent dialogue and an artist’s POV that made the entire story such a refreshing read. Frazier knew precisely what he was doing by sending a mural painter to become a detective—a lover of beauty hired to find it in places deemed void of it, to look at the desolation of America and determine whether it could be capable of hiding artistic potential. For a book so intricately tied to a bygone time, The Trackers nevertheless feels shockingly timely for the America we might struggle to paint now.

You know those movie trailers where everything that is interesting or funny about the movie is in the trailer, and you're left thinking, "why would I see the movie? You just gave me all the best bits"? That's how I felt about this book. The summary was the best part of it.

Charles Frazier is most well-known for being the author of Cold Mountain, which I have not read but heard good things about. But I love a historical fiction, and I love a chase caper, so I wanted to try this.

My biggest complaint is that this book doesn't pass the Bechdel test, and more dramatically, the "lead" woman character, Eve, is very Depression manic pixie dream girl. Overall, none of the women in this book (of which there are not many) exist to do anything other than serve the male characters' growth and plots. For example, one of the unnamed women they encounter is described thusly: "A round and good-looking woman, speckled as a guinea egg with freckles across her cheeks and nose, and about my same age, came to the porch and stood with her arms folded under her breasts so that they rose up above her bodice in two smooth domes." WHY, BRO. Why is it important to mention her breasts? You didn't even give her a name, but I'm glad we know they look like domes. (To be as fair as I possibly could be, this is a charcter telling a story within the story, so it is possible this was meant to be a character moment, and yet still I say, why?) Honestly, though, none of the characters are really particularly fleshed out.

One of the sentences about the book is that it "paints a vivid portrait of life in the Depression." With few exceptions, it felt like it could have been set any time without cell phones or internet.

The most exciting part for me was when Val visited 1930s Seattle.

I'm sure there will be an audience for this one, but it's not right for my wee shop.

CW: violence, infidelity, abortion

Set during the Depression of the 1930s, the narrative of  Charles Frazier’s new novel, "The Trackers," is embedded in a New Deal mural.  The narrator, Val, a young out-of-work artist, procures an assignment to paint a mural at the post office in Dawes, Wyoming. Although he is warned not to express radical ideas in his art, or in any way imitate the political murals of his hero, the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, Val enjoys the opportunity to incorporate local history with the natural terrain.  And he proves to be an excellent art teacher:  he chats with P.O. customers about the WPA,  explains ancient techniques of mural-painting, and invites children to help him paint.

I would have been happy to spent the entire novel in the world of public art: as a fan of the murals of the regionalist painters Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, I have enjoyed road trips to admire the public art of the ’30s. In Frazier’s novel, the mural is both the still center and a vehicle for action. The action takes place in unexpected road trips.


Politics gets in the way of art, even though Val has been warned against politics. Val lives in a cabin on the ranch of his rich patron, John Long, an aspiring politician who proposed the mural to the government.  But after John alienates his wife, Eve, a former singer, by his relentless political networking, she drives away one morning and disappears. John  hires Val  to take time off from the mural and track her down – and also to make sure that Eve’s first husband is dead and that her past won’t embarrass him politically.


Finding Eve is problematic.   Before meeting John, Eve was dirt-poor and bummed around: she rode the rails, lived in hobo camps, and traveled as a singer for a band.  Val tracks her to Seattle through conversations with people on the road and in hobo camps.  Parts of this read like an informative oral history, fascinating though not always subtle. Alas, Eve is always several steps ahead of Val. Along the way, he encounters violent criminals and barely escapes with his life.


What I especially admired in this book were Val’s observations of the Great Depression using Covid metaphors.  (The Influenza pandemic preceded the Depression.)  Sometimes Val thinks life is getting back to normal, but then there is “the dreadful backsliding of the economy toward hopelessness, like waves of a medieval plague breaking over you again and again….  Soon we’d be seeing front-page apocalyptic photographs again, biblical dust storms, black blizzards, towering into the sky and scouring the landscape. Heat waves threatening to burn out the center of the country. Seventy-five percent of the nation in drought.”


This is a  splendid book – very smart, enjoyable, and fast-paced – the first I’ve read by Frazier. The writing is lyrical and passionate.  

A fascinating portrait of the Depression.
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4 1/2 🌟s. Frazier (Cold Mountain, Thirteen Moons, Varina) is a favorite author. His writing style is detailed and has depth, and yet is crisp. Blending storylines of personal intimacy with historical events and yet relevant to the present. In The Trackers a young artist is commissioned to do a WPA Post Office mural in a small Wyoming town. A local rich rancher of inherited wealth, eastern background, political ambitions, and most importantly a younger beautiful (but not too beautiful) wife of mysterious background becomes a sort of patron to the artist. Frazier’s attention to detail is evident in his descriptions of depression area hobo life, mural painting with tempura, ranching, 1930s western cities, are all excellent and add greatly to a story that might be somewhat predictable but has twists. The last chapter of the book, the ending, is appropriate and nuanced.

Told through an artist’s eye for beautiful detail, the author describes the country from Florida to California and especially Wyoming during the late 1930s. The landscape, the sky, the Hooverville settlements, and the rugged characters of the western prairie come to life in these pages. Even though this is a slow plot kind of story, there is still tension as the narrative unfolds. The author includes some background information of the times with political viewpoints from several characters, comments on Supreme Court decisions, the desperation and hopelessness of many citizens during the depression, and the prevailing attitude toward women. A bit more character background would have been desirable but ultimately, not necessary.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the ARC to read and review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Harper Collins for a copy of this book for my review.

The story takes place in the 1930s during the depression. Valentine Welsh a young painter gets a grant from the government to paint a mural in the Post Office in Dawes Wyoming. The mural is to show the sophisticated process of painting and show the life of the people in west.
Val is offered a cabin on a large ranch, Long Shot, owned by John and Eve Long. He meets the leading cowboy rancher, Faro. His character is well described as one who took on the Wild West.

Eve eventually leaves the ranch with no reason. John seeking a political position is concerned about his reputation. Eve being a roaming singer at bars many have seen her and loved it. Val is sent to find her.
One of the best parts of the book were the description of Val’s travels from the west to east coast. The color of the skies and mountains you want to see it. The description of what the depression did to peoples lives are described in various places.

It was an easy story to read. My issue was I think there should have been more about the characters themselves. I couldn’t attach myself to a favorite. Then the ending to me was left hanging leaving you to guess what happens. I prefer a story to come to a conclusion. But not everyone does.

Charles Frazier's new book, The Trackers, paints a vivid picture of life in America during the Great Depression. Told from the perspective of Val Welch, a recent art school graduate tapped by the WPA to paint a mural in a new post office in rural Wyoming, Frazier's tale takes the reader on a journey through the high plains of the mountain West, the low shores of the Pacific Northwest, the dank swamps of Florida, and the bustle of Depression-era San Francisco. Along the way we're introduced to a wild cast of characters: John Long, the wealthy Wyoming ranch owner with political aspirations who offers Val lodgings and takes him under his wing; Eve, John's much younger wife, a former fruit tramp and nightclub singer with a mysterious past; Faro, Long's top ranch hand, a wizened old throwback to the days of the Wild West cowboy; and so many more. The story itself is told in the fashion of painting a mural -- starting out slow as the bones of the story are sketched out, and picking up speed as the color starts to be applied. By the end, you have a full picture with plenty of detail the closer you step in to examine the finished piece.

4 sprawling stars

This slow-burn tale paints a vivid picture of what the country was like during the Depression. The main character is Valentine Welch, Val for short. He’s a painter and he’s commissioned to paint a post office mural in rural Wyoming.

He’s hosted by local wealthy rancher John Long and is quickly involved in life on the ranch. John’s beautiful wife Eve has a colorful past singing and traveling the country by rails. She struggles to put up with John’s political aspirations.

There’s an enigmatic worker on the ranch, Faro, and I loved his character, he seemed like the epitome of a cowboy. I think there could be a future book featuring him!

The book takes a dramatic turn when Eve skips town with a valuable painting and John sends Val off to find her. Val takes his first airplane ride to Florida and is nearly killed when he’s asking too many questions. He also heads to San Francisco and searches every nightclub in town to track Eve down.

Val uncovers secrets and danger in his quest to find Eve and he’s uncertain about what the future holds. If he finds her, will she go back to Wyoming? What about his feelings for her?

This was great storytelling that I savored, and it captured the time period well.

As much as it pains me to say it, I felt that The Trackers was a bland boring history story. I hate that because as a history teacher I love these stories but I never connected with this or the characters.

really liked this book. at first thought the author engaged in too much description, but the story line developed into something interesting. have lived in Cheyenne and are aware of the hardy people who live there on their ranchettes battling weather and isolation. liked the characters of Val, the artist dedicated to producing art in a part of the United States that normally does not see many artists. Eve and her husband, John Long, tried to develop somewhat of a family, a family with political aspirations. Eve had other ideas from her living on the road as a fruit picker and entertainer in bars. theirs was not a relationship to last. my favorite character was Faro, the sundried cowboy with few words. surprisingly, his words of wisdom were scarce, but right on point. thought the book ended well with the artist signing his name to his mural, The Trackers.

Asheville native son Charles Frazier’s April release, The Trackers, was sparked by a moment spent in the Boone, NC, post office where one of the Depression-generated murals remains. This led him to further research in which he found a photograph of two painters on a scaffold working on a mural being observed by a well-dressed couple. He knew there was a story there, and 10 years later this novel was born.

Valentine “Val” Welch, working on a commission from the New Deal to paint a mural in the Dawes, Wyoming, post office, becomes drawn into the lives of his hosts, John and Eve Long, a rich couple with a large spread in the Cowboy State. Over the course of time, Val finds himself a little in love with Eve who has shared that she was an itinerant worker as a teenager and a night club singer before marrying Long. The ranch foreman, a horse whisperer named Faro, befriends young Val, and offers some insight about the Longs.

Long has been pushing hard in Cheyenne with political aspirations while Eve finds herself being used as arm candy with her husband’s many supporters. Eve soon rejects this lifestyle and is on the run with a Renoir painting to fund her way out. With the mural 80% finished, Long pulls Val from painting to track Eve to find out where she has gone, why she quit the marriage, and, most importantly, who she really is as Long believes he does not know the woman he married.

Long’s research forms Val’s quest that takes him to the Great Northwest, to the Florida swamps, and finally to San Francisco. Val’s journey is not a pleasure trip as he is thwarted by people living in Hoovervilles, finds himself prisoner of a family in the swamps, and is pursued by another who is also searching for runaway Eve.

Frazier has created a complex story of several common people struggling during the Depression contrasted with Long who represents the rich who were able to maintain their fortunes during this period. Frazier’s extensive research provides a real feel for the time period through politics, cars, art, architecture, and even a mention of the missing Amelia Earhart.

Charles Frazier received the North Carolina Award for literature in 2008. His first novel, Cold Mountain (1997), won the National Book Award for Fiction. His other titles include Thirteen Moons (2006), Nightwoods (2011), and Varina (2018). Frazier was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and grew up in Andrews and Franklin. After years of raising show horses in central Florida, Frazier and his wife built a home in Asheville.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting March 9, 2023.

I would like to thank Ecco, HarperCollins, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.