A Single Shot

Rating:
Summary: Rocks the senses
Review: A Single Shot is a weird and twisted story of a man, John Moon, who accidentally shoots a young teenager. The book goes on to explain his emotional turmoil and the lengths he goes to to make sure he isn't caught. John Moon has always wanted a simple life but the older he gets, the more confusing his life gets. The accidental shooting of this young girl haunts every aspect of his life. It become the center of his conscience and he is suspicious of everyone and everything. The book moves along quickly and is easy to read. It has alot of twists and an interesting ending.

Rating:
Summary: Thrilling . . .
Review: A Single Shot is a weird and twisted story of a man, John Moon, who accidentally shoots a young teenager. The book goes on to explain his emotional turmoil and the lengths he goes to to make sure he isn't caught. John Moon has always wanted a simple life but the older he gets, the more confusing his life gets. The accidental shooting of this young girl haunts every aspect of his life. It become the center of his conscience and he is suspicious of everyone and everything. The book moves along quickly and is easy to read. It has alot of twists and an interesting ending.

Rating:
Summary: A hell of a read
Review: I still haven't got John Moon or his unraveling out of my head. SHOT is taut and edgy with real characters you can care about. The L.A. Times Book Review was right on - the finest portrait of guilt since CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. The best novel I've come across in a long while.

Rating:
Summary: Rocks the senses
Review: In this day and age of derivative stories and derivative storytellers what a pleasure to come across a book so unique and an author so distinct and above the fray. This was one of the best novels dealing with the theme of guilt I've come across. At the same time it was much more than that - a great character study, a mystery, even a love story of a gruesome sort. A hell of a thrilling read that will take you deep into a world you'll likely be glad you don't live in and one I guarantee you won't soon forget. Really good stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Like Falling Down a Deep Well
Review: Matthew F. Jones has written a tight thriller, A Single Shot, that takes the reader deeper and deeper down a dark tunnel of despair and violence. It begins with a single shot that reverberates in one man's life until the final few pages. There is no let up from the protaganist's despair and it makes for an exciting and somewhat depressing read. The author writes well and uses the space of this short novel effectively and chillingly as he shows how a single moment can destroy the destiny of men forever. It has the feel of the world of film noir mixed with the literary imagingings of mystery novel.

Rating:
Summary: Fatal accident and its aftermath
Review: One of the great unknown literary noir novels of the last ten years, Matthew Jones' A Single Shot is set in mountainous back country where, at its outset, John Moon, a local farmer, divorced, goes hunting. At the same time two young drifters, male and female, are temporarily settled in around Moon's hunting grounds. Tragedy ensues.

What makes this so compelling and powerful is the author's unrelenting portrait of a man who cannot stop thinking about what he has done, to the point of manic obsession, to the point of visualizing his victim appearing before him in ghostly form, and to the point of wild indetermination about what to do with the stash of cash found in the temporary nesting ground. The revelation of criminal activity adds just the right element to this dark fever dream of a novel that pushes the reader forward, further and further into John Moon's world.

As we travel down this path of dread we realize that his inner world more and more becomes his outer one until the boundary between the two is blurry indeed. As well, the intermittent involvement with his ex-wife, decidedly frustrating, is the "two" in a one-two punch adding to the burning emotional intensity here.

The author's grasp of rural speech patterns, behaviors, and lifestyle is flawless, giving the novel the authenticity it needs to make it truly masterful.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Fatal accident and its aftermath
Review: One of the great unknown literary noir novels of the last ten years, Matthew Jones' A Single Shot is set in mountainous back country where, at its outset, John Moon, a local farmer, divorced, goes hunting. At the same time two young drifters, male and female, are temporarily settled in around Moon's hunting grounds. Tragedy ensues.

What makes this so compelling and powerful is the author's unrelenting portrait of a man who cannot stop thinking about what he has done, to the point of manic obsession, to the point of visualizing his victim appearing before him in ghostly form, and to the point of wild indetermination about what to do with the stash of cash found in the temporary nesting ground. The revelation of criminal activity adds just the right element to this dark fever dream of a novel that pushes the reader forward, further and further into John Moon's world.

As we travel down this path of dread we realize that his inner world more and more becomes his outer one until the boundary between the two is blurry indeed. As well, the intermittent involvement with his ex-wife, decidedly frustrating, is the "two" in a one-two punch adding to the burning emotional intensity here.

The author's grasp of rural speech patterns, behaviors, and lifestyle is flawless, giving the novel the authenticity it needs to make it truly masterful.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Strong stuff
Review: Powerful book with strong characters and setting, about a backwoods hunter who shoots a girl by mistake and goes downhill thereafter. Good writing, although curiously flat in parts, despite emotional potential of content. Potent combination of sex and violence may by too much for some. It ain't 'Deliverance', it ain't 'A Simple Plan', but it's a good read, being both suspenseful and well plotted. I will check out more of this author's books.

Rating:
Summary: Strong stuff
Review: Powerful book with strong characters and setting, about a backwoods hunter who shoots a girl by mistake and goes downhill thereafter. Good writing, although curiously flat in parts, despite emotional potential of content. Potent combination of sex and violence may by too much for some. It ain't 'Deliverance', it ain't 'A Simple Plan', but it's a good read, being both suspenseful and well plotted. I will check out more of this author's books.

Rating:
Summary: Matthew F. Jones flat out is one of America's best writers
Review: This is an interesting story and is very well written without a lot of fluff, but I wouldn't recommend it for most readers, because it won't satisfy entertainment demands. For those who like excellence in story crafting, it's worth a read.