Mary Roberts Rinehart’s Lost Ecstasy turns the romance of the Old West on its head.
Handsome cowboy Tom McNeil can ride, rope, and sing baritone. His only flaws—binge drinking, womanizing, and using paper napkins—aren’t enough to put off pretty, Eastern heiress Kay Dowling.
Lost Ecstasy by Mary Roberts Rinehart.
Doran, 1927. 372 pp.
1927 bestseller # 6. My Grade: B-.
She throws herself at Tom.
Kay leaves her fiance and family money for Tom, who at the time is working in a traveling Rodeo and Wild West Show .
When Tom is injured in the show and can no longer do cowboy stuff, Kay finagles a ranch for him to run by offering the local banker her pearls and a check from her aunt as security.
Tom is on the verge of making the ranch pay when Kay’s mother has a heart attack.
Kay goes home to care for her.
While she’s gone, a bad winter wipes out all Tom’s work. He ends up working the Wild West Show again.
When her mother dies, Kay must decide whether she loves Tom enough put up with his faults.
Kay and Tom are both stereotypes. The plot is hackneyed. Even the settings feel as if they were written on the back lot at Universal Studios.
The paper napkins, though, are a nice touch.
© 2017 Linda Gorton Aragoni
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