Covey Jenks Blog Tour and Review with a #Giveaway #LoneStarLit

What first impressed me with Covey Jencks is the straight forward, frank language. From the first line through the last, the writing is refreshingly honest. Julie and I were recently discussing great first lines (see our post here) and Covey Jencks starts out strong:

I never intended to come back to West Texas. It’s hot and dusty, yes, but that’s not the thing. … I like freedom. It’s why I am not married. It’s why I almost never wear a suit. It’s why, despite my long standing misgivings and intentions, I am in Odessa, Texas and not in Washington, D.C.

This first paragraph sets the tone for the whole book. And I was hooked immediately.

The characters in the novel are original and fantastically diverse collection of white, brown, black, straight, gay, and everything in between. Every one of the characters reads as realistic, from Covey and JayJay through Wild Bill, the Boston gangster, to the corrupt cops. There’s even a helpful list of characters at the beginning of the novel.

The main plot of the novel sets out as Covey trys to solve the murder of Freddie, the woman who plays a predominant part of Covey’s teenage years. I quite enjoyed following along with Covey and JayJay as they added or eliminated possible suspects. But even more, I was quite fond of the interactions between all of the characters. Some of the best scenes are the “house party” scenes where the characters are together, brain-storming on how to capture the killer.

I’ve never been to Odessa (that’s an eight hour drive from Houston!), but I really feel like Mr. Williams captures Odessa and the western portion of Texas. There is a great chapter (Chaos in the Universe) that describes West Texas as being a product of oil and water, how the presence of one (oil) precludes the presence of the other (water). That’s an amazing fact I really never thought about. Odessa is really like another character in this novel.

In addition to being set in Odessa, Covey Jencks is also set in 1995/1996. I think this is a great choice made by Mr. Williams. We see the beginnings of cell phones, AOL and the internet, and this great quote about Starbucks:

… while I nursed a coffee at a new Starbucks on 75. Why the hell is a small coffee called tall? Over time, they will no doubt fix that and almost certainly lower the price- if they want to stay in business.

Here we are more than 20 years later, still complaining about the same things at Starbucks. I totally chuckled at that line!  And yes, I was drinking an iced tea from Starbucks while reading this section of the novel.

My only real complaint while reading Covey Jencks is that my attention to the plot and narration began to really waver towards the end of the novel. Once the plan to capture Freddie’s killer is put into action, the whole situation felt a bit too Scooby Doo-ish, foiling the mastermind’s evil intentions. I blame my gnat-sized attention span.

I fully enjoyed reading Covey Jencks. An altogether great read. 4 1/2 stars!

Thanks to author Shelton Williams and Lone Star Book Blog Tours for providing this opportunity to review Covey Jencks. I received the novel free in exchange for my honest review.