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'Red Grass River' by James Carlos Blake

Books in Brief

Thursday, August 24, 2000

By Nancy Pate, The Orlando Sentinel

	Red Grass River By James Carlos Blake HarperPerennial $14.00

Blake calls his wild and woolly tale of early 20th-century South Florida bootleggers and bloodshed “a legend” as he chronicles the saga of folk hero and outlaw John Ashley. Early on, Ashley, living in the sawgrass sanctuary of the Everglades, runs afoul of lawman Bobby Baker, and the pair’s fateful feud continues over the years, involving their families and the Chicago mob, even as their wilderness world begins to give way to a more modern Miami.