Episode 266: Navigating History and Heart in "The Madstone": Elizabeth Crook's Earnest Tale of Adventure in Reconstruction Era Texas

Hopeton Hay Podcasts

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Elizabeth Crook, author of the novel THE MADSTONE. Set during Reconstruction in Texas in 1868, THE MADSTONE is an adventure story of a young frontiersman who helps a pregnant young mother and her child flee across Texas from outlaws bent on revenge. The outlaws are based on the historically true Swamp Fox gang which terrorized and killed blacks, and agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau, a federal agency which provided relief and helped formerly enslaved people become self-sufficient. In the interview we discussed Crook's commitment to tell the whole truth about Texas history in her storytelling. She cites storytelling as her motivation, as it is both educational and compelling.
Elizabeth Crook, who is the author of six novels, received the prestigious Texas Writer Award from the Texas Book Festival in 2023.
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