The Texas Job by Reavis Z. Wortham

 

First Line: The buckskin's hooves landed with soft thuds on the sandy East Texas road.

 

It's 1931 when Texas Ranger Tom Bell rides into an East Texas oil boomtown where thousands of men have flocked to find work. He's hunting for a fugitive murderer, and it's obvious that the sheriff and his men aren't going to be any help.

 

But his search for the wanted man uncovers more than he bargained for. Something's not right in this town, and since it does tie into his own search, Bell can't help but ask a few questions here and there. Unfortunately, his investigation stirs up a hornets' nest of resistance. Now Tom Bell is a wanted man himself.

 

~

 

For anyone familiar with Reavis Wortham's Red River mystery series, the name Tom Bell will be a familiar (and welcome) one. Bell is an old man in the 1960s setting of the Red River mysteries, but The Texas Job shows him as a young man in 1931 with more than a touch of Wyatt Earp-like invincibility. 

 

Wortham aptly describes the boomtown sensibility of Texas oil fields, of everyone out to make as much money as fast as they possibly can. And where there are boatloads of fast money, there are boatloads of outlaws, from petty criminals all the way up to the gangsters of organized crime. These are the days of Pretty Boy Floyd, of Ma Barker, John Dillinger, and Bonnie and Clyde. The Texas Job gives readers shootouts and ambushes and twisted, evil plots to grab control of the rights to all that oil and money. And if all that sounds a bit far-fetched, I'd suggest a little additional reading... David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon, for instance. 

But if this sounds like too much action and not enough setting and characterization, think again. The opening scene of The Texas Job is beautiful and lyrical. Wortham paints such a vivid picture that I easily found myself on horseback riding along with Tom Bell. Yes, there is beauty to be found in this book, as well as love, kindness, greed, and ugliness.

And then there's Tom Bell. A man who has to think on his feet in order to stay alive. A man who doesn't see skin color, and as a result meets unforgettable eleven-year-old Booker Johnston, and Booker's friends and family. The bad guys in this book are the types you love to hate, and you want to see them come to bad ends, but it's Bell's interactions with the marginalized there in town that bring a smile to my face and make the story come to life.

If you're a fan of Wortham's Red River mysteries, you already know you have a treat in store for you in The Texas Job. If you haven't made the acquaintance of Tom Bell, there's no time like the present. You're not only going to like him, you're going to want more.

The Texas Job by Reavis Z. Wortham

eISBN: 9781464215711

Poisoned Pen Press © 2022

eBook, 416 pages

 

Historical Thriller, Red River prequel

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

Laying Bones by Reavis Wortham

 

First Line: I rode against the passenger door in the front seat of my cousin's midnight blue 1964 Comet, watching the headlights cut through the cold darkness.

 

It's a bitterly cold January in rural Center Springs, Texas, and Constable Ned Parker doesn't believe the death of his nephew was accidental, so he methodically begins turning over every stone he can find to shine a light on the truth.

 

Some of the stones lead Ned right to the Starlite Club, a new honky-tonk built on no-man's land on the Texas side of the Red River. There he finds suspicious characters, drugs, and gambling, but what's worse is the string of murders that seem to be eliminating anyone who might know what really happened to Ned's nephew.

 

All he can do is keep digging away, relying on his fellow police officers and help from an old Texas Ranger... and his grandchildren who have a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

~

 

It's been a very long three years since the last Red River mystery, and I was thrilled to bits to find out that Reavis Wortham had finally written another one. Laying Bones is an excellent addition to the series, and it has a great twist at the end that I didn't see coming (but should have).

Wortham always creates a strong mystery, and finding the truth behind R.B. Parker's death is no exception. In Laying Bones, he gets extra points for fooling me, although I'm going to say that I was so wrapped up in the story that I ignored the clues he planted along the way. Besides the mystery, there are two major reasons why I enjoy this Red River series so much: the pitch-perfect sense of place and a standout cast of characters.

Wortham puts you right smack dab in the middle of rural northeast Texas in the 1960s and lets you watch as the problems of the outside world slither in. He can paint a scene that comes alive in your mind's eye, and he does it, not just by visual cues of kids going to see a John Wayne movie in a midnight blue 1964 Comet but also by language, and I think it's the language more than anything else that draws me so deeply into Wortham's stories. In the small farm village where I grew up, we didn't say "barbed wire," it was "bobwire" like it is in Wortham's fictional Center Springs-- and "You ain't just a woofin'" was a common phrase used that I haven't heard since I moved away.

The second major reason, the standout cast of characters, is probably the strongest reason of all for my love of this series. Wortham lets you see the story from more than one point of view. You get to see the world through Ned Parker's teenage grandson Top's eyes as well as those of his young cousins and friends. In Laying Bones, Top mostly feels like a fifth wheel as the others have begun pairing up. These kids are good kids, but they certainly do have a knack for being where they shouldn't be-- usually at the instigation of the free-spirited Pepper. However, if they didn't have that knack, they wouldn't be able to provide Ned and the others with valuable information from time to time.

You also get to see the story through the grownups' eyes. There's a whole passel of Parkers led by Ned. Cody, his nephew, is the police chief who's finally reached the stage of his career where he knows when to tell his uncle to calm down and stay put. But of all the grownup characters, one of my two favorites is big John Washington, the Black deputy. In his quiet way readers get to see what life was like for Blacks in 1960s Texas. When it comes right down to it, I don't know who I'd want to have at my back in a fight, John Washington or retired Texas Ranger Tom Bell. Mr. Tom might have been chasing outlaws in the 1930s, but anyone who dismisses either him or Ned Parker as just an old man does so at their own peril. Both of these men don't talk much but they have a huge presence.

From the mystery to the sense of place to the characters, these Red River mysteries are most definitely more-ish, and I hope with all my heart that it's not another three years before I see these folks again.

Laying Bones by Reavis Wortham

eISBN: 9781464214387

Poisoned Pen Press © 2021

eBook, 336 pages

 

Historical Mystery, #8 Red River mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

Gold Dust by Reavis Z. Wortham

First Line: The Devil was beating his wife when the rusty green cattle trailer backed through an assortment of oak, pecan, elm, and hackberry trees surrounding a warped and sun-splintered catch pen.

They both should have known better. The crop duster should've known that the two nondescript men with a lot of money to offer had more than checking wind currents and weather patterns on their minds, and fourteen-year-old Pepper Parker should've known better than to let jealousy of a sexy older woman incite her to make up a story about a hidden fortune in gold. But they didn't, and it didn't take long for things to unravel in Center Springs, Texas in the late 1960s.

The biological agent sprayed across the area makes some people sick and puts Pepper's cousin, Top, at death's door. When Top's grandfather Constable Ned Parker finds out about the crop duster, the government, and the supposedly benign biological agent called "Gold Dust," he and a retired Texas Ranger head east to set things straight. While they're gone, the rest of local law enforcement has to deal with cattle rustlers and the effects of the entire area being overrun by treasure hunters.

If like me, you like some good, old-fashioned frontier justice from time to time, you'd have a difficult time finding anyone better than Reavis Wortham to get the job done. Gold Dust is the continuation of his excellent Red River series-- a series that I will never willingly miss an installment of. Why? Because I love the way Wortham tells a story. He's true to his Texas roots, and the language and the time period of the late 1960s. He also creates characters readers can really care about, and adrenaline junkies will fall in love with his action scenes. (And I have to admit that one of the reasons why I enjoy those hair-raising action sequences is because some of the participants tend to be very spry old folks.)

A bit of frontier justice has never seemed more fitting than here in Gold Dust when you've got the government doing things it knows it shouldn't be doing, but I've got a bit more to say about the subject of justice. In previous reviews, I've made no secret of the fact that there is one character in this series who rubs my fur the wrong way: Pepper Parker. That girl really makes me talk to myself, which is a huge compliment to Wortham's skill in characterization. Pepper wreaks havoc with that gold story of hers, and when her "bill came due," I just wish the amount had been higher. I despair of that girl ever getting her head screwed on straight.

But enough belly-aching about a fictional person. If you're a fellow fan of these wonderful Red River mysteries, you have a treat in store. If you have yet to sample them, I suggest you start at the beginning with The Rock Hole. You've got some mighty fine reading ahead of you!    

Gold Dust by Reavis Z. Wortham

eISBN: 9781464209642

Poisoned Pen Press © 2018

eBook, 300 pages

Historical Mystery, #7 Red River mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley


 

Unraveled by Reavis Z. Wortham

First Line: Grandpa Ned always said our quiet little country community in northeast Texas was like a stock pond, calm and smooth on the surface so there's not much to look at, but full of life and death down below.

It's 1968, and the residents of little Center Springs, Texas assume that their lives have finally quieted down. But you know what happens when you assume. A decades-long feud between two local families-- the Clays and the Mayfields-- is flaring up again. 

Fourteen-year-old Top Parker lives with his grandparents, Constable Ned Parker and Miss Becky, in a farmhouse near the Red River-- not far away from the single car accident that claims the lives of the white mayor of Chisum and his black female assistant. Since the two dead people are members of the Clay and Mayfield families, that's all it takes to light a powder keg of hatred and vengeance. 

With the entire situation complicated by a mysterious man calling himself the Wraith and with Sheriff Cody Parker looking like a suspect in what's going on, Cody takes the advice of Deputy John Washington and removes himself from the investigation. Now Washington and Deputy Anna Sloan have to unravel a nest of clues, facts, and misconceptions to catch a killer before anyone else dies.

Author Reavis Wortham has created a world that seems so different from the 1960s that I grew up in, but it really isn't once I stop looking back with the eyes of a child. What makes Center Springs such a fascinating setting is that the town seems to have had the good fortune to put people with common sense (and common decency) in positions of authority-- like Top's grandfather, Constable Ned Parker. Although racism and bigotry can be seen everywhere, Center Springs is at the forefront of both civil and equal rights. Despite what the local bigots think, black Deputy John Washington is regarded with respect by most even though he's had to walk a fine line his entire life. Center Springs also has a female deputy who's proved her worth time and again. See? Typical, yet not typical at all.

But it's not just the police force that shines in this small community. I've watched Top and his cousin Pepper from book one, The Rock Hole. Life has thrown some horrible things in their path, but they're being allowed to be typical kids-- which is when most of the laugh-out-loud funny scenes occur. Yes indeed, Wortham's characters make his books shine because they are complex. They grow. They change. They can mellow (like Pepper is, thank heavens), and they can surprise.

Wortham's Red River mysteries work on so many different levels. As a coming of age story. As a pitch-perfect historical saga. As a police procedural. As visceral action tales. (And humor, too!) I have come to rely upon this author to present me with fine tales well told, and I have no intentions of missing a single one. You shouldn't either.
  

Unraveled by Reavis Z. Wortham

ISBN: 9781464207099

Poisoned Pen Press © 2016

Hardcover, 336 pages

Historical Mystery, #6 Red River mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley


 

Dark Places by Reavis Z. Wortham

First Line: The oil road stretching into the darkness made me feel queasy, giving me a sense that I'd been there before.

No matter how much the Parker family would love to have the world leave their home of Center Springs, Texas alone, it refuses. 1967 is winding down. Fourteen-year-old Top and his cousin Pepper are still finding it difficult to forget violent events of the past. Young Pepper has bought completely into all the peace and love of the Flower Children, and she decides to join them in California-- little knowing what's in store for her. Then a local farmer is killed in a hit-and-run on the same night as two businessmen are kidnapped and murdered.  

Constable Ned Parker thinks these two crimes may be connected, but he leaves the investigation in the hands of Sheriff Cody Parker. Instead Ned heads off in search of Pepper. Cody has hired a new deputy, Anna Sloan, who proves invaluable in their two investigations. And in the mean time, Pepper is out on Route 66, making her way to California in the midst of lies, deception, and outlaw motorcycle gangs.

In the fifth excellent installment of Wortham's historical mystery series, it's the characters, sizzling action sequences, and tiny details that immerse you in the story from first page to last. With Ned out on the road looking for Pepper, other characters back home in Center Springs have to step up to the plate, and they do so in fine style. I was particularly impressed with Deputy Anna Sloan, a dedicated woman in a man's world who has a good eye for the telling detail. I look forward to seeing more of her. 

With a runaway child and two cases involving suspicious deaths, there's a lot going on in Dark Places, but it never once gets confusing. Tiny little details catch the reader's eye as the story progresses... a patch of grass, a cat's behavior, insignia on jackets... but the characters bind everything together. There's a very well-disguised cold-blooded killer to be found, as well as a helpful young man who isn't exactly what he appears to be. When your nerves get frazzled over the danger Pepper's put herself into, you get to see Top back in Center Springs, disgusted that he's the only one who has to stay at home while everyone else is taking trips. Top does get to play a part in solving a crime or two from something that he reads, and that just serves to reinforce something I read recently in another mystery: No reading is ever wasted.

From rebellious teenagers to born killers to determined grandmothers to an old woman named Betty singing "O Holy Night," Reavis Wortham has taken us all on another period perfect excursion into the past that proves the strength of family and the need to do what's right, whatever the cost. This is one of my favorite series, and I'd no more miss an installment of it than I'd stop reading. I hope you join me in enjoying these books. It's best to start at the beginning-- The Rock Hole-- because Wortham's wonderful cast of characters grow and change. You won't want to miss a bit of that, I guarantee.
   

Dark Places by Reavis Z. Wortham

ISBN: 9781464204241

Poisoned Pen Press © 2015

Paperback, 370 pages

Historical Mystery, #5 Red River mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.


 

Vengeance Is Mine by Reavis Z. Wortham

First Line: Tony Agrioli was grateful to leave the blistering sun and dive into the cold air of Malachi Best's noisy The Desert Gold casino.

Mob enforcer Tony Agrioli is used to killing those who get in his boss's way, but he does have a line or two that he's not willing to cross. When faced with one of those lines, he takes his girlfriend and hightails it out of Las Vegas, heading for someplace he thinks the Mob will never look for him: the tiny backwater of Center Springs, Texas.

What Tony doesn't take into consideration is the fact that he and his girlfriend aren't exactly the types to blend in this sleepy little town. In no time at all they're getting to know young Top and his cousin Pepper, and all the other local denizens.

Top and Pepper are still dealing with what happened to them at the Rock Hole. Top has an opportunity to take vengeance into his own hands here, and Pepper is convinced that Center Springs is an evil place. She's fallen for the just-passed Summer of Love and wants to go to California where the young people there know that the most important things in the world are peace and love. What she doesn't realize is that what's happening in her hometown is due to a very bad person who lives there. This person is going to have to be dealt with if Center Springs has a chance of being safe and happy again.

Wortham has completely won me over with his blend of humor and seriousness. With one word, he can have me reliving my youth in my own central Illinois version of Center Springs. Last time in The Right Side of Wrong, that one word was "bobwire" (barbed wire). In Vengeance Is Mine, it's "worsh" (wash).  Even if you didn't grow up in a small town in the 1960s, you're certainly going to know what it was like by reading Wortham.

There's a seriousness to Wortham: big city problems moving into small towns, the effects a new dam is going to have on the area, the fact that white adults always have to think of the consequences if they or their children are seen mixing with black people. Drugs, technology, violence, racism. Pretty important-- and serious-- stuff, but Wortham is an expert at leavening the grim with laugh-out-loud humor. In this book the author taught me about some of the lyrics to a Little Richard song, city slicker Tony walking into a country store and quizzically eyeing a tin of Bag Balm, and Top being told a few facts of life by Pepper and two other young girls.

There's usually a scene towards the end when all Hades breaks loose, and Vengeance Is Mine is no exception. What makes it one of my favorites in this series is its "Witness"- like quality. (Remember the movie where Harrison Ford lives among the Amish for a while?) Yes, bad things happen in small towns, but folks there still know that they're all in this together. And it's the working together that makes things better.

These Red River mysteries have turned into one of my favorite series-- for the spot-on setting, for one of the best casts of characters going, for the humor, and for some high-octane action scenes that make my socks roll up and down. Each book does well as a standalone, but don't deny yourself one second of enjoyment. Begin at the beginning with The Rock Hole. You'll be glad you did!
 

Vengeance Is Mine by Reavis Z. Wortham

ISBN: 9781464202605

Poisoned Pen Press © 2014

Paperback, 327 pages

Historical Mystery, #4 Red River mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.

The Right Side of Wrong by Reavis Z. Wortham

First Line: Constable Cody Parker's phone jangles him from a sound sleep at one in the morning.

Constable Cody Parker has to fight his way through an unusually heavy snowfall to answer a domestic violence call, but he never makes it. Instead, he's ambushed on a lonely country road and almost dead before he's found.

As Cody recovers, his uncle Constable Ned Parker begins piecing together disjointed bits of conversation and adding them to seemingly unrelated murders. As 1965 ends and 1966 works its way toward summer, Ned tries to keep his grandchildren Top and Pepper from getting underfoot. This is serious business. Somehow his peaceful little town of Center Springs, Texas is no longer a safe place to live, and Ned Parker intends to do something about that.

Reavis Wortham's Red River mystery series continues to solidify its position as one of my favorites. I'm torn between wanting to get caught up (I'm within one book of that goal) and wanting to save Vengeance Is Mine as one of my "go to books" in case I have a string of bad reading luck. Decisions, decisions!

In the mean time, I read The Right Side of Wrong much too quickly. I couldn't help myself. It has all the characters I've grown to love: Ned Parker, his wife Miss Becky, his grandson Top, his nephew Cody Parker, Deputy John Washington, and Judge O.C. Rains. An added bonus in this book is a new character, the mysterious Tom Bell, whom I immediately liked. For any of you already acquainted with this marvelous series, you will have noted that I didn't include Pepper in the group of characters I love. That little girl just plain annoys the stuffing out of me, and I wish Top would grow a spine and say no to her hare-brained schemes! 

Wortham's Texas in the mid-1960s is pitch perfect as always. Growing up in a rural farm community as I did, he can put me right in the middle of a scene with just one well-chosen word. (The word this time was "bobwire." That's what folks where I grew up always called barbed wire.) Center Springs is a microcosm of our country during the '60s, and The Right Side of Wrong shows us the beginnings of a problem that haunts us to this day and its effects on a small community. 

It also shows us how strong prejudice was then and that bigots still had the upper hand; however, we're also shown that the wall is beginning to crumble due to the behavior of people like the Parkers, Judge Rains, and John Washington.

Wortham knows how to write action scenes that will make your hands shake as you try to find a faster way to turn the pages. This time, our heroes travel across the Rio Grande into Mexico in an adventure so dangerous it curled my hair. Wow.

Now this time the Bad-Guy-in-Charge was rather easy for me to deduce, but as in all well-told tales, it's not always the who that makes the story, sometimes it's the how. Watching the judge and the Parkers figure out how to bring him down put a smile on my face.

Reavis Wortham can make you laugh. He can make you cry. He can make you remember your own childhood. He can also make you hunker down so deep inside a story that you don't want to come up for air. You can read these Red River mysteries as standalones and enjoy them, but I don't recommend taking that path. These characters are so wonderful that I strongly urge you to start at the beginning (The Rock Hole) because once you have, you won't want to miss a single chapter in their lives. Do you like Craig Johnson? Peter Bowen? C.J. Box? Donis Casey? William Kent Krueger's Ordinary Grace? If you do, chances are excellent that you'll like Reavis Wortham, too.

Now if I could only make myself stop staring at that lone Red River mystery sitting over there on that shelf....
 

The Right Side of Wrong by Reavis Z. Wortham

ISBN: 9781464201486

Poisoned Pen Press © 2013

Paperback, 307 pages

Historical Mystery/Thriller, #3 Red River mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.

 

  

Burrows by Reavis Z. Wortham

First Line: Drip.

Ned Parker has retired and is no longer a constable in Center Springs, Texas. The area speedsters take advantage of this and start drag racing past his farm, but many of the other folks in the community don't seem to realize that "retired" means they can't call him over every little concern they may have. All he wants to do is be a cotton farmer and do what he can to make sure his grandchildren, Top and Pepper, are fully recovered from the events of the past summer. 

But it's just not meant to be. If there's trouble, folks pick up the phone and call Ned. One such call sends him to the banks of the Red River where a body has been found, and then he finds himself in the middle of a manhunt. The new constable, Ned's nephew Cody Parker, and legendary Deputy John Washington are searching for a killer in the long-abandoned Cotton Exchange-- a building that they rapidly find is packed full of the town's garbage and riddled with tunnels and booby traps. There's only one way to get the killer: to crawl through those tunnels and avoid those deadly traps. And there's only one person qualified for the job: Vietnam veteran and former tunnel rat Constable Cody Parker. Cody's got to crawl in there, catch a killer, and make it back out alive.

I think it's best to begin my comments with a warning. If you are extremely claustrophobic, you might want to give Burrows a pass. I am, and I almost didn't make it out of the Cotton Exchange with my sanity intact. Now I can hear what you're thinking. If I'm so claustrophobic, why did I keep reading the book? Was someone holding a gun to my head? Well... no. No gun to this head. But the reason why I couldn't stop reading is because Reavis Wortham is a powerful storyteller whose words can grab you by the throat and not let go. From the chilling opening scene, I could no more stop reading than I could stop breathing.

Once again there's more to Wortham's Red River mysteries than murder and mayhem. These two books are a pitch-perfect evocation of a time. In 1964, I was a couple of years younger than Ned Parker's grandson Top, but I also  played "Combat" and rode my bicycle around town and country getting into things I knew I shouldn't be getting into. If Scotty were to beam me to Center Springs, Texas in 1964, I'd feel at home, and no one would have to tell me to be careful with the gossip who listens in on the party line.  Although Top and Pepper don't have the big roles they did in The Rock Hole, Wortham lets us see how they're dealing with what happened to them in the first book. Both children are having problems, and Ned deals with Top's acting out just like my mother and grandfather would have dealt with me. (There are many benefits to living in a small town.) Do you have to read The Rock Hole to make sense of Burrows? No, you don't, but you're probably going to finish this one and then get your hands on that first book as fast as you can.

There's a running joke throughout this book in which people are constantly telling Ned Parker, "I thought you was retired!" It reminded me of "Big Jake," a John Wayne film in which everyone thought Wayne's character was dead. "Not hardly," said the Duke, and when he finally got tired of it, he said, "I'm going to shoot the next person who says that!" I was hoping that Ned Parker didn't run out of patience like John Wayne did.

If I have one complaint about Burrows, it's the fact that I think the crawling through the Cotton Exchange went on just a bit too long, but I don't know if that's a reasonable observation or my claustrophobia talking. One thing I do know-- the Cotton Exchange now tops Shirley Jackson's Hill House on my list of places that creep me out:

The anxious men beside the radios chuckled nervously and continued to watch the building. They were frightened by the entire horrific night, the Ghost Man, a demented murderer who had already taken one man's life, and a frightening building that was possibly digesting two friends at that very moment.

If there's one author I'm glad I discovered in 2014, it's Reavis Z. Wortham. The man certainly knows how to write the kind of story that makes you realize reading it is much more important than a good night's sleep.
 

Burrows by Reavis Z. Wortham

ISBN: 9781464200069

Poisoned Pen Press © 2012

Paperback, 313 pages

Historical Mystery, #2 Red River mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.

The Rock Hole by Reavis Z. Wortham

First Line: I came to live with my grandparents up on the Red River in the summer of 1964.

In farmer Ned Parker's world, it's time to start getting the cotton picked. Since he's also a part-time constable in Center Springs, Texas, he's thankful that those responsibilities tend to be nothing more onerous than hauling in drunks, busting up stills, and settling the occasional domestic disturbance. Parker likes keeping things simple; that way he and John Washington, the first official black deputy in the area, can take care of things without having to deal too much with the despicable sheriff.

When the bodies of brutally tortured animals begin popping up all over the area, Ned Parker starts to worry. He worries because this is happening so close to home. He worries because it seems to be happening more and more frequently. He worries that he may actually know the person who's doing it. And he's really worried because he believes the person torturing and killing animals is going to start doing the same thing to human beings-- and his beloved ten-year-old grandson Top is living with him now. Constable Ned Parker is right to be worried. Right on all counts. He does know the person. The person's focus does change from animals to humans. And Ned's going to have to do everything in his power to keep his grandchildren safe.

I had a feeling that I was going to enjoy this first book in Reavis Z. Wortham's Red River mystery series, but I had no idea that I would love it and immediately go back to the bookstore to buy the rest of the series. As I read The Rock Hole, I was reminded of another perfect evocation of a time, a place, and the loss of innocence: William Kent Krueger's Ordinary Grace. Wortham's carefully chosen details, eccentric characters, and country humor transported me to a small town in Texas in 1964, and his lightning pace and deft plot kept me spellbound until I'd finished the book. 

Roughly half the chapters are written in the first person point of view of ten-year-old Top. His adventures with his slightly older cousin Pepper ring with spirit, humor, and affection which makes the rapid erosion of these two children's innocence even more startling and painful. The rest of the chapters are in the third person from Ned Parker's point of view. This is where you get the bluntly accurate picture of life in this small Texas town with its racist sheriff and moonshiners who always seem to be a step ahead of the law. The portrait Wortham paints of this place and time isn't always funny or charming or pretty, but it's always true-- even if it sometimes puts his characters in a negative light.

Once I'd finished The Rock Hole, I had to wait for my heart to slow down, but one thing was certain: I'd fallen in love with Top and his grandparents and Pepper-- even with Center Springs itself-- and I simply had to have the rest of the Red River mysteries in my possession. Once you read The Rock Hole-- and believe me, you should-- I think you're going to feel the same way.
 

The Rock Hole by Reavis Z. Wortham

ISBN: 9781590588864 

Poisoned Pen Press © 2011

Paperback, 284 pages

Historical Mystery, #1 Red River mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.