A Killing in Quail County

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful and engaging story that captures the heart.
Review: The book captures the reader's imagination from its opening sentence. The mystery, set in 1957 in a small Oklahoma, transports the reader back to a different era. You can smell and feel the dust rising off the unpaved streets in this town where no one locks their doors at night and everyone knows your business. This is also the coming-of-age story of fifteen-year-old Mark Stoddard, recently orphaned and living with his older brother, whom he desperately wants to impress. The story has the ring of truth and is hopefully not Mr. Cole's last novel.

Rating:
Summary: 1st-place winner of the 1996 Colorado Book Award for fiction
Review: The book captures the reader's imagination from its opening sentence. The mystery, set in 1957 in a small Oklahoma, transports the reader back to a different era. You can smell and feel the dust rising off the unpaved streets in this town where no one locks their doors at night and everyone knows your business. This is also the coming-of-age story of fifteen-year-old Mark Stoddard, recently orphaned and living with his older brother, whom he desperately wants to impress. The story has the ring of truth and is hopefully not Mr. Cole's last novel.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful and engaging story that captures the heart.
Review: This tantalizing tale of youth set in 1957 rural Oklahoma is definitely one of the best books I've read in years. I liken it to such classic coming-of-age novels as Robert McGannon's A Boy's Life and Stephen King's The Body. The characters come alive on the page and the story itself is richly textured with the authentic atmosphere of a small town during a time when liquor was illegal and bootlegging threatened the moral standards of a small, God-fearing community. The story remains compelling from chapter to chapter, making the book difficult to put down. I eagerly await Jameson Cole's next masterpiece of excellent story-telling.