2 Novels by Stephen Becker
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Overview: Stephen Becker (1927–1999) was an American author, translator, and teacher whose published works include eleven novels and the English translations of many works, including Elie Wiesel’s The Town Behind the Wall and The Forgotten and André Malraux’s The Conquerors. He was born in Mount Vernon, New York in 1927, and after serving in World War II, he graduated from Harvard University and studied in Peking and Paris, where he was friends with the novelist Richard Wright and learned French in part by reading detective novels. The recipient of Paul Harris and Guggenheim Fellowships and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Becker taught at numerous schools throughout the United States, including the University of Iowa, Bennington College, and the University of Central Florida in Orlando. His best-known works include A Covenant with Death (1965), which was adapted into a Warner Brothers film starring Gene Hackman and George Maharis; When the War Is Over (1969), a Civil War novel based on the true story of a teenage Confederate soldier executed more than a month after Lee’s surrender; and the Far East trilogy of literary adventure novels: The Chinese Bandit (1975), The Last Mandarin (1979), and The Blue-Eyed Shan (1982).
Genre: Historical Fiction , Mystery
A Covenant with Death: A stunning courtroom drama set in 1920s New Mexico: “If you enjoyed Anatomy of a Murder or To Kill a Mockingbird, this is your kind of book” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
On a sultry day in the spring of 1923, Louise Talbot spends the last afternoon of her life lounging in the shade of a sycamore tree in her front yard. Beautiful and vivacious, Louise is the talk of Soledad City—every man lusts after her; every woman wants to know her secrets. She is found strangled to death that evening, and when the investigation uncovers her affair with another man, the citizens of the frontier town draw the obvious conclusion: Bryan Talbot murdered his wife in a fit of jealousy and rage.
Presiding over the trial is twenty-nine-year-old Ben Lewis. Appointed to the bench as a tribute to the memory of his late father, he fears he is too inexperienced to sentence another man to death. All the evidence points to Talbot, however, and it is a magistrate’s sworn duty to see that justice is served. But when a last-second twist casts the question of the defendant’s guilt or innocence in a shocking new light, Judge Lewis must decide whether to uphold the law—or let a murderer go free.
A thrilling suspense story and a fascinating inquiry into human nature and the true meaning of justice, A Covenant with Death was a New York Times bestseller and the basis for a feature film starring George Maharis and Gene Hackman.
When the War Is Over: Based on real events, this gripping tale of military injustice ranks alongside The Red Badge of Courage as one of the most original and timeless Civil War novels ever published
On a fine September morning in 1864, Lt. Marius Catto leads a platoon of Union army soldiers across a Kentucky meadow. A figure rises in the distance and takes aim. Catto dives to the ground, but it’s too late—the lead ball lodged in his shoulder will be his final souvenir of the war.
The shooter, a barefoot teenager named Thomas Martin, claims to be a Confederate soldier, but he wears no uniform and his rifle is older than most of Catto’s men. Taken prisoner and brought back to the garrison in Cincinnati, Martin is court-martialed as a guerrilla, found guilty, and sentenced to death by firing squad.
From the bare facts of a long-forgotten incident in the final days of the Civil War, author Stephen Becker has crafted an indelible portrait of the military mindset that is as true today as it was one hundred fifty years ago. The story of Thomas Martin—a sixteen-year-old orphan whose only advocate was the man he shot—is a riveting tale of courage, loyalty, and the crushing inhumanity of life during wartime.
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