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WORK TITLE: The Duck Springs Affair
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://johnisaacjones.com/
CITY: Edgewater
STATE: FL
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in AL.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist, author. Worked as a reporter for media outlets including National Enquirer, New York, NY, News of the World, London, England, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, NBC television, and newspapers in AL.
WRITINGS
Also author of the e-book stories, “The Surrogate,” 2016, “Annie,” 2017, and other self-published tales.
SIDELIGHTS
John Isaac Jones is a retired journalist who wrote for major publication in the United States, England, and Australia. Now living in Florida, Jones has turned to fiction writing, penning novels including The Last Cowboy, The Duck Springs Affair, and The Hand of God.
On his Website, Jones comments on where an author can get story ideas: “Ideas … are everywhere, but you must be very selective about which ones you choose to write about. That’s why, if you’re a serious writer, you should have a notebook with you at all times and, when you see a promising idea, you jot it down. Many times, these ideas will produce nothing at first but, after your imagination works on them for a while, a full-blown plot will suddenly pop up out of nowhere. You don’t know how it happened or why your imagination put that particular cast on the idea, but it happened.”
In an online Many Books interview, Jones remarked on his evolution from journalist to a writer of fiction: “Writing is a craft and, like anything, the more you do it the better you get. As a journalist for many years, I developed a knack for stringing words together, but learning plotting, pace, characterization and theme development requires time, patience and lots of trial and error. After four novels and a book of short stories, I can look back at my work like a carpenter might look back at the houses he has built. Starting with two bedroom/two bath homes, I moved to six-bedroom split levels with swimming pools then to expansive mansions with twenty bedrooms, custom kitchens and chandeliered foyers.”
The Last Cowboy
Jones’s 2012 novel, The Last Cowboy, is the story of J.L Crockett and how he dared the odds to continue living the life of a cowboy in the age of technology. The novel opens in 2017 with J.L. looking fondly back on how he met his wife, Karina. A decade earlier, the Lazy B Ranch was sold out of under J.L. and it seemed his life as a cowboy was an anachronism. But the more he thought about it, the more he felt that this might be the case in the United States, but maybe not in other parts of the world. Thus was born his plan to move to Argentina where ranches run by humans were still a way of life. J.L. started his journey by going cross country to Miami where he intended to board ship for South America. En route, however, he met Karina, another person who was chasing her dream. These two outsiders joined forces on a road trip that led to adventures with con artists and thieves, with ghosts and drug barons, and evangelists and the down-and-out. But each of these near disasters had a hidden silver lining and brought J.L. and Karina closer together and ultimately forged a new dream for both of them.
A contributor for the online Book Viral had praise for The Last Cowboy, noting: “Enjoyable, humorous and often hypnotic, … [it] proves one of those enduring novels that grows in the memory. It’s a novel with a good heart and whilst road trip themes can often be clichéd, Jones manages to leave clichés far behind.” The contributor added: “Jones simply writes wonderful novels and in The Last Cowboy he hasn’t disappointed. A must read for the months ahead.” A Dab of Darkness Book Reviews website writer, however, was not as enthusiastic, commenting: “While the set up was there for this to be the romantic comedy it claims to be, it fell flat in many ways. The story felt very dated, Karina’s main purpose in the tale was to be the romantic interest, some of the situations just didn’t ring true, and there just wasn’t much humor at all.”
The Duck Springs Affair
In The Duck Springs Affair, Jones writes about another unlikely romance. Cassie Mae Carter is getting on in age and recalls a romance she had in the 1960s. A resident of Duck Springs, Georgia, Cassie is basically raising a sickly son all on her own, as her husband is away for weeks at a time working as long-haul driver. Life is bleak and lonely for Cassie, and then a road crew comes to expand the road near her farmhouse and on that crew is the handsome construction worker Paul Hamilton. Independent by nature, Paul finds himself drawn to this farm wife, and finally finds an opportunity to help her out with a troublesome calf. Mutual attraction ensues and soon they are finding ways to meet secretly and carry on an affair, even though Cassie knows it will go nowhere because divorce is not an option. Finally, Cassie asks Paul to get her pregnant so that she will have something to remember him by, and now he must wrestle with his own feelings as well as with the fact that their relationship is fated to end.
“This fast-paced novel deftly tackles complicated questions of sacrifice, loyalty, and grief while keeping the suspense high until the story’s final twist,” noted a critic in Kirkus Reviews, who further termed it a “knotty, engaging tale of lost hope and lonely nights.” An online Book Viral contributor also had a high assessment, calling this a “mature, believable, and truly moving love story,” and adding: “With a well-considered plot, it could easily have fallen prey to sweeping sentiment to become overly mawkish, but Jones strikes the perfect balance between idealised romance and the often more sombre overtures of reality.”
The Hand of God
Jones turns to crime fiction in The Hand of God, set in Florida in the 1950s. Bobby Lincoln is a young black man with little hope for a good future. He manages a sort of living by fishing and working at a sugar mill, and his common-law wife threatens to leave him if his prospects do not improve. Thus, when he is offered a couple thousand dollars to join in a serious crime, he takes it on despite the fear of disappointing his religious mom and a teen who has set Bobby on a pedestal. When this crime turns deadly, Bobby is consumed with guilt and seeks some form of redemption. The novel is based on real-life murders in Florida, where Jones resides.
A Kirkus Reviews Online critic commended The Hand of God, noting: “Overall, this book is well-paced, drawing readers into its time period without slowing the story down with excessive description.” The critic further remarked: “Bobby is a believable and mostly sympathetic protagonist; his personal character flaws are many and glaring, but it’s enjoyable to watch him struggle to overcome them.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2017, review of The Duck Springs Affair.
ONLINE
Book Viral, http://www.bookviral.com/ (May 15, 2018), review of The Last Cowboy and The Duck Springs Affair.
Dab of Darkness, https://dabofdarkness.com/(January 17, 2018), review of The Last Cowboy.
Kirkus Reviews Online, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (September 20, 2017), review of The Hand of God
Many Books, http://manybooks.net/ (May 15, 2018), author interview.
QUOTE:
ideas is they are everywhere, but you must be very selective about which ones you choose to write about. That’s why, if you’re a serious writer, you should have a notebook with you at all times and, when you see a promising idea, you jot it down. Many times, these ideas will produce nothing at first but, after your imagination works on them for a while, a full-blown plot will suddenly pop up out of nowhere. You don’t know how it happened or why your imagination put that particular cast on the idea, but it happened.
John I. Jones
John Isaac Jones is a retired journalist currently living at Merritt Island, Florida.
For more than thirty years, “John I.,” as he prefers to be called, was a reporter for media outlets throughout the world.
he Writing Life: Part I
The Writing Life: Part I
Where do you get ideas?
Funny how people always seem to ask me that. And it’s a fair question. I can remember, as a young writer, asking that question myself. First, ideas are everywhere, but you must exercise caution in choosing them. You might get an idea from some an experience, an observation, some artistic influence, some snippet of conversation, just a few words from a TV program or even a passing photo you saw on the internet. The main thing is to always be on the lookout for a good story idea. If you’re watching, you’ll find them. Once you find one, jot it down so you won’t forget it!!
And you never know when one will pop up. They come out of nowhere. I got the idea for my short story The Old Indian during a conversation with a distant relative at my aunt’s funeral in Alabama. Many years ago, while I was in high school, I watched a construction worker have an affair with a woman who lived near the construction project he was working on. Many years later, I wondered what happened to the man and woman after the project was finished. In 2015, I wrote my novel The Duck Springs Affair.
In 1975, when I was a try-out reporter with The National Enquirer I heard the story of the famous Chillingworth murders in Palm Beach County, Florida. At the time I was fascinated with the story. One summer night in 1955, Palm Beach Judge Curtis Chillingworth and his wife Marjorie disappeared from their beach home at Manalapan, Florida and were never seen again. Preliminary evidence indicated they had been kidnapped, taken out to sea and murdered. It was a tale which, at the time I read it, I knew I would never forget it.
Over the next 42 years, from 1975-2017, that story marinated deep within my subconscious mind, shaping and reshaping itself until I had the plot for a novel. In 2017, I wrote The Hand of God, a historical novel based on the Chillingworth murders.
So, from the initial germ of the idea until the actual work was written was 42 years. That’s a long time for an idea to grow in your mind before it becomes a published work, but that’s how it happened.
Many times, stories have grown out of incidents which occurred in my life. My short story The Old Men grew out of an incident which occurred when I was a teenager at my father’s grocery store. My novella Boone was based on an incident which happened to me as a young child.
The important thing to remember about ideas is they are everywhere, but you must be very selective about which ones you choose to write about. That’s why, if you’re a serious writer, you should have a notebook with you at all times and, when you see a promising idea, you jot it down. Many times, these ideas will produce nothing at first but, after your imagination works on them for a while, a full-blown plot will suddenly pop up out of nowhere. You don’t know how it happened or why your imagination put that particular cast on the idea, but it happened.
Remember that story ideas are everywhere. The main thing is to always be on the lookout for them. And once you find one, make a note then let your subconscious mind work on it. Before you know it, you’ll have the making of a solid literary work. That’s the creative process!!
These included local newspapers in his native Alabama, The National Enquirer, News of the World in London, the Sydney Morning Herald, and NBC television.
He is the author of six novels, a short story collection and four novellas.
QUOTE:
this fast-paced novel deftly tackles complicated questions of sacrifice, loyalty, and grief while keeping the suspense high until the story's final twist.
A knotty, engaging tale of lost hope and lonely nights.
Jones, John Isaac: THE DUCK SPRINGS AFFAIR
Kirkus Reviews.
(July 1, 2017): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Jones, John Isaac THE DUCK SPRINGS AFFAIR Self (Indie Fiction) $14.99 7, 5 ISBN: 978-0-9743790-2-9
An elderly woman remembers her romantic difficulties during the 1960s in this novel. Cassie Mae Carter is a woman trapped in a loveless marriage, raising a sickly son in Duck Springs, Georgia, nearly on her own, as her long-haul truck driver husband is so rarely at home. Paul Hamilton is a handsome and rakish construction worker who loves to be outside, to use his hands, and to enjoy the freedom of independence. When Paul joins a crew that is expanding a portion of road adjacent to Cassie's farmhouse, both their lives are changed forever. After admiring Cassie from afar, Paul finally finds the nerve to approach her when he sees her tussling with a wayward calf on the farm. After playing hero to this damsel in distress, Paul finds he cannot stay away from her. Following a few more interactions, Cassie and Paul acknowledge their undeniable attraction to each other, and they begin devising clandestine ways to meet. Paul finds himself falling deeply in love with Cassie, experiencing emotions that are foreign to him but exhilarating just the same. Unfortunately, Cassie feels that divorce is not an option for her, and she knows that she and Paul will have no future together. During one of their many meetings, she asks him to give her a child so that she may have something to remember him, a piece of him to keep with her after his road crew departs. Paul struggles with this request and mourns the doomed nature of their relationship. As Jones (Lonely Magnolia, 2017, etc.) effectively creates one obstacle after another for Cassie and Paul, he also explores deeper questions about personal choices and the different forms that love takes. Although the story is ostensibly told by Cassie, most of the narrative flows from Paul's point of view. Even so, this fast-paced novel deftly tackles complicated questions of sacrifice, loyalty, and grief while keeping the suspense high until the story's final twist. This book should especially appeal to fans of star-crossed romances. A knotty, engaging tale of lost hope and lonely nights.
1 of 2 5/14/18, 11:13 PM
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Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Jones, John Isaac: THE DUCK SPRINGS AFFAIR." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2017. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497199531/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=eca2fe0c. Accessed 15 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497199531
2 of 2 5/14/18, 11:13 PM
QUOTE:
Enjoyable, humorous and often hypnotic, The Last Cowboy from John Isaac Jones proves one of those enduring novels that grows in the memory. It’s a novel with a good heart and whilst road trip themes can often be clichéd, Jones manages to leave clichés far behind.
Jones simply writes wonderful novels and in The Last Cowboy he hasn’t disappointed. A must read for the months ahead,
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The plot......
When the Lazy B Ranch is sold as a victim of the computer age, it seems that J.L. Crockett’s way of life as a cowboy in the United States is finished. So he decides to pack up and move to Argentina, where ranches are still run by human beings. As J.L. begins a cross-country journey to Miami so he can board the ship to South America, he meets Karina, another soul chasing after an elusive dream. The two join together in a wild and crazy trip where they encounter evangelists, con artists, thieves, ghosts and drug lords as they bond together over hardship along the way. Will J.L., with Karina, make it to his next destination or will he really be The Last Cowboy?
Our review......
Enjoyable, humorous and often hypnotic, The Last Cowboy from John Isaac Jones proves one of those enduring novels that grows in the memory. It’s a novel with a good heart and whilst road trip themes can often be clichéd, Jones manages to leave clichés far behind. On one level it’s a love story and yet romance isn’t really the point. He’s created particularly well nuanced and marginal characters whilst resisting any tendency to soften or compromise them. J.L. and Karina are simply made for each other, there’s no need for bloated exposition, with Jones managing to make their attraction understandable whilst giving it an almost philosophical edge. They’re both intelligent and from their desire for something more comes a measure of grace. On this level it’s congruent with Jone’s ‘The Duck Springs Affair’ as chapter after chapter finds the right note. Sometimes despairing, and yet curiously hopeful, reminding us of the need to always find a measure of solace and fun in the choices we make, wherever they might lead us.
In the final analysis, John Isaac Jones simply writes wonderful novels and in The Last Cowboy he hasn’t disappointed. A must read for the months ahead, it is recommended without reservation.
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QUOTE:
mature, believable, and truly moving love story
With a well-considered plot, it could easily have fallen prey to sweeping sentiment to become overly mawkish, but Jones strikes the perfect balance between idealised romance and the often more sombre overtures of reality.
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The plot......
Devoted mother Cassie Carter is hard working and dedicated to running her small farm in Georgia. She tends to her home and sickly son daily while her truck driver husband is away on long hauls across the country. Her life and values take a sharp turn when a handsome and intelligent construction worker disrupts her daily routine. Her priorities shift and everything she keeps in her comfort zone is threatened.
Damaged romantic Paul Hamilton has a void in his life that leaves him wandering from affair to affair, empty and unfulfilled. He identifies with the haunting poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, yearning to capture an elusive love. One day, in an unexpected place, he discovers the love he is seeking, but she is out of his reach and he runs the risk of irreparably damaging the delicate balance he tries to maintain in his life.
In the Duck Springs Affair, Paul and Cassie’s worlds collide and explode. Will what they offer each other sustain and give them what they need out of life and love? Or, are they doomed to suffer the tragic consequences of their decisions as each searches for the perfect love?
Our review......
A mature, believable, and truly moving love story, The Duck Springs Affair is the latest release from author John Isaac Jones. At its core it’s a girl meets boy romance and whilst the premise doesn’t sound wholly original Jones ably manages to transcend potentially trite tropes to deliver a universal story of love, selflessness, devotion and choice, that’s both eloquent and persuasive. With a well-considered plot, it could easily have fallen prey to sweeping sentiment to become overly mawkish, but Jones strikes the perfect balance between idealised romance and the often more sombre overtures of reality. The pace, whilst often languid, is never boring as Jones has an inherent knack for picking special moments between his characters on which to expand. Heartfelt and poignant, it’s these that bring Cassie and Paul to life. There’s an the honest chemistry between them that reminds us how some people simply click, but there’s no attempt by Jones to pump his readers full of contrived sentiment. Affairs happen, but the corny endings that dominate idealised fiction are far removed from reality and it's this appreciation that leads jones to deliver an unexpected, but cracking denouement.
A perfectly pitched and entertaining novel, The Duck Springs Affair certainly deserves your attention and would make a fine summer read. Deserving of a place on your bookshelf, it is highly recommended.
QUOTE:
Writing is a craft and, like anything, the more you do it the better you get. As a journalist for many years, I developed a knack for stringing words together, but learning plotting, pace, characterization and theme development requires time, patience and lots of trial and error. After four novels and a book of short stories, I can look back at my work like a carpenter might look back at the houses he has built. Starting with two bedroom/two bath homes, I moved to six-bedroom split levels with swimming pools then to expansive mansions with twenty bedrooms, custom kitchens and chandeliered foyers.
John Isaac Jones - A Construction Worker and a Lonely Housewife
For over thirty years, John Isaac Jones used to work as a reporter for media outlets all over the world, but these days he is writing riveting books while enjoying his retirement. As our author of the day, Jones talks about his life as a journalist and how a construction worker inspired his book, The Duck Springs Affair and why he chose South Georgia as the backdrop for his book.
Please give us a short introduction to what The Duck Springs Affair is about.
The Duck Springs Affair is a star-crossed romance between Paul Hamilton, a construction worker who wanders from one affair to the next, and Cassie Carter, a lonely housewife and devoted mother whose long-haul truck driver husband is away most of the time. At first, their relationship is nothing more than a casual fling then, slowly but surely, as each plumbs the heart and soul of the other, it grows into much, much more.
Why did you pick a small farm in 1961 Georgia as the backdrop for your book?
I chose the South Georgia farm setting because I know it so well. As a child growing up in North Alabama and later as an adult in suburban Atlanta, I have an intimate knowledge of the woods, the fields, the seasons and the people of the rural Deep South.
Why the moral dilemma of an affair with a married woman?
To my mind, the best, most delicious drama grows out of stories in which the human heart is in conflict with itself. Agonizing soul-searches and heart-rending looks into the nooks and crannies of a character’s psychological landscape are my favorite topics for fiction.
What inspired you to write this book?
In the summer of 1960, the year I graduated high school, the State of Alabama Highway Department finally paved the dirt road in front of our family home. Over the course of the project, I watched one of the construction workers have an affair with a married woman who lived across the creek from our home. Many times over the succeeding years, I wondered what had happened to their relationship after the project was finished. Did the worker go to the next job and forget her? Did she yearn for him after he was gone? Did they make plans to continue the relationship at a later date? In the late winter of 2014 and 2015, with these unanswered questions still swirling in my mind, I decided to write a book about how the affair ended. Thus, was born The Duck Springs Affair
How much, would you say, has your career as a journalist influenced your writing?
There is no doubt that my career as a journalist contributed mightily to my life and work as a novelist. Actually, the transition seems perfectly natural. A yen for words, a compelling yarn and a love of narration which evokes heart-felt emotions—whether fiction or non-fiction—is what I live for.
Tell us a bit more about Paul Hamilton's character. Why did you give him a damaged past?
I wanted the reader to understand that Paul, at the time of the story, was not consciously looking for a committed relationship. Secretly, he wanted to find the love of his life, his Annabel Lee, but he was in no hurry to give his heart to any one woman. He was having too much fun going from one fling to the next. Furthermore, as a construction worker moving job to job and state to state, he couldn’t afford to be tied down to one woman.
Which character's voice did you find the most challenging to write in?
For me, third person is the hardest, especially when you can’t get the words the come. On the other hand, when the images and words flowing freely, I enjoy writing third person. Third person is more cinematic, more objective, more concrete. First person is my favorite although I’ve never tried to write a novel in first person. I’ve written fifteen or twenty short stories in first person. You can tell a more intimate, personal story with first person.
Readers report that you made them laugh and cry throughout the story. How do you make your characters so relatable?
Evoking strong emotions in the reader is the very essence of quality fiction. Many times, in trying to determine the course of a dramatic scene, I will try to create dialogue and actions which evokes the strongest possible emotions. Once you have believable, relatable characters, you’ll be surprised at the depths of the emotions you can bring out.
What types of books do you enjoy reading for your own entertainment?
Mostly classics. Lately I’m reread Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God and some of Faulkner’s short stories. During a recent trip to Mexico, I came across Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy which I read. I have since read his No Country For Old Men.
Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?
In 1995, after the OJ trial ended in LA, I returned to the South and began a career in computer technology. I spent two years working for Hewlett-Packard in Atlanta, then twelve years as a network troubleshooter for a satellite communications company in Marietta, Ga. During that period, I managed to crank our two novels and a short story collection.
Do you have any interesting writing habits? Do you write during the day or evening, do you have a favorite writing spot?
I write best in the early morning. I get up around 7:30, make coffee, checks the markets and sit down to write. Once I get in the groove, I work until the creative fires start to languish. Usually that’s until around noon. Somedays, if it’s going really good, I can write until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, but that is rare.
How do you think you’ve evolved creatively as an author since you published your first book?
Writing is a craft and, like anything, the more you do it the better you get. As a journalist for many years, I developed a knack for stringing words together, but learning plotting, pace, characterization and theme development requires time, patience and lots of trial and error. After four novels and a book of short stories, I can look back at my work like a carpenter might look back at the houses he has built. Starting with two bedroom/two bath homes, I moved to six-bedroom split levels with swimming pools then to expansive mansions with twenty bedrooms, custom kitchens and chandeliered foyers.
What are you working on right now?
At the moment, I am around half-finished on a crime novel titled “The Hand of God.” Set in south Florida in the mid-fifties, it is the story of a young black man who committed a deed so heinous he could not forgive himself. Hope to have it to my editor by February. At least, I promised it then.
Where can our readers discover more of your work or interact with you?
My Amazon page is: https://www.amazon.com/John-Isaac-Jones/e/B008PR3DQ8
The Duck Springs Affair
John Isaac Jones
Devoted mother Cassie Carter is dedicated to running her small farm in Georgia when she meets a handsome and intelligent construction worker named Paul Hamilton. Can Paul and Cassie offer each other what they need out of life and love?
Romance
$0.99
$2.99
Amazon
About the Author
John Isaac Jones is a retired journalist currently living at Merritt Island, Florida. For more than thirty years, "John I.," as he prefers to be called, was a reporter for media outlets throughout the world. These included local newspapers in his native Alabama, The National Enquirer, News of the World in London, the Sydney Morning Herald, and NBC television. He is the author of four novels, a short story collection and two novellas.
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QUOTE:
Overall, this book is well-paced, drawing readers into its time period without slowing the story down with excessive description. Bobby is a believable and mostly sympathetic protagonist; his personal character flaws are many and glaring, but it’s enjoyable to watch him struggle to overcome them.
THE HAND OF GOD by John Isaac Jones
THE HAND OF GOD
by John Isaac Jones
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KIRKUS REVIEW
An African-American man is caught between his own demons and those of 1950s American society in this historical novel.
Jones (Tembo Makaburi, 2017, etc.) tells the story of 24-year-old Bobby Lincoln, who lives in the coastal town of Palm Harbor in 1955 Florida. With few jobs and no education available to him, he ekes out a living by fishing and doing any other work that he can find, often using his boat. But it’s not enough for him or his common-law wife, Idella, who keeps threatening to leave him if he doesn’t become a more effective breadwinner. None of this is helped by his own love of gambling and his tendency to keep company with some of the town’s best-known criminals. When a local gangster offers him $2,450 to take part in a serious crime, Bobby knows that it would break the heart of his deeply religious mother and disappoint a smart teenage boy who idolizes him. But he also believes that it might be his only chance to keep his wife and get back some self-respect. One little boat ride quickly turns into a nightmare that consumes Bobby’s life even as he tries to conceal it from others. As the situation spirals further out of control, he finds that there may still be a way to get the redemption he seeks, even if it takes divine intervention. Overall, this book is well-paced, drawing readers into its time period without slowing the story down with excessive description. Bobby is a believable and mostly sympathetic protagonist; his personal character flaws are many and glaring, but it’s enjoyable to watch him struggle to overcome them. The book’s flaws, by comparison, are relatively small: the author tends to use double exclamation marks in dialogue when they’re not necessary, and he often tells readers what characters are feeling (“He liked being around him because he knew the teenager looked up to him”) instead of showing it through their actions. By and large, though, the story rises above these issues.
An imperfect but often engaging tale of an imperfect man seeking redemption.
Pub Date: April 20th, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9743790-3-6
Page count: 268pp
Publisher: Self
Program: Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20th, 2017
QUOTE:
While the set up was there for this to be the romantic comedy it claims to be, it fell flat in many ways. The story felt very dated, Karina’s main purpose in the tale was to be the romantic interest, some of the situations just didn’t ring true, and there just wasn’t much humor at all.
Dab of Darkness Book Reviews
The Last Cowboy by John Isaac Jones
Narrator: Richard L. Walton
Publisher: John Isaac Jones (2017)
Length: 4 hours 58 minutes
Author’s Page
Book Blurb:
When the Lazy B Ranch is sold as a victim of the computer age, it seems that J.L. Crockett’s way of life as a cowboy in the United States is finished. So he decides to pack up and move to Argentina, where ranches are still run by human beings.
As J.L. begins a cross-country journey to Miami so he can board the ship to South America, he meets Karina, another soul chasing after an elusive dream. The two join together in a wild and crazy trip where they encounter evangelists, con artists, thieves, ghosts, and drug lords as they bond together over hardship along the way.
Will J.L., with Karina, make it to his next destination or will he really be The Last Cowboy?
My Review
This tale starts off in Florida in 2017 but the bulk of the tale is set in 2007 as the main character, J. L., reminisces meeting his current wife. J.L. of 2007 has just been laid off from a Montana ranch but he has a fall back plan which is to go to Argentina and work as a vaquero there. Along the drive to catch the boat to his new life, he meets Karina, who is also making a journey cross country heading to Florida.
While the set up was there for this to be the romantic comedy it claims to be, it fell flat in many ways. The story felt very dated, Karina’s main purpose in the tale was to be the romantic interest, some of the situations just didn’t ring true, and there just wasn’t much humor at all. I’ve listened to several stories by this author and some of them have been top notch. Alas, this is not one of them.
To be up front, contemporary romance isn’t my cup of tea. With that said, I found the little bit of romance we have in this book to be rather stiff and not titillating at all. In fact, when we get near the end of the story (and we know from the beginning that marriage happens), the whole marriage thing felt more like a business arrangement between two people who have a bit of fondness for one another instead of a great sweeping romance. Now, if that was the plot point, I’d be fine with it. But since this is labeled a romance, I want there to be real romance & heat between these characters.
The book is set in 2007 but it really felt more like 1967. I believe J.L. is in his late 20s in 2007 so I expected some modern ways of thinking. He insists on opening doors for the ladies (which isn’t all bad but when added with all the other dated things, it leaves this impression of a cowboy out of time). There’s some arguments about Custer’s last stand and an old Indian show that J. L. catches. Then that restaurant scene where J. L. was the only one to know the Heimlich maneuver. Then that scene where he splashes a little gas on the vehicle carburetor to get it started and the whole car catches on fire and no one has a fire extinguisher or a fire retardant tarp or even thinks to slam the hood down to smoother the flames. I could go on, but I won’t. All together, this didn’t feel like it was set in 2007.
Karina was a problem for me. For much of the story, she could be any woman. She does get a little background here and there but her lines are pretty standard and she makes few (any?) of the plot-relevant decisions in the story. The first night she and J. L. are traveling together, he offers to sleep in the truck and get her a hotel room. But she counters by insisting they just put up a sheet between the beds. The next day, she confesses that she’s always been afraid of men and that she doesn’t know why (so why were you OK sharing a room with a strange man?). Yet she then launches into her upbringing with a father who beat her mother regularly. J. L. then mansplains the psychology of how she’s afraid of men because her father was an abusive spouse. She then has an epiphany in which all that becomes clear to her. Sigh… Really? Later in the story, she faints and has to be carried. Further on, she says nothing would make her happier than to have his babies. Then even later, she wants a daughter so she can teach her how to be a lady, because gender roles…. in 2017…. sigh. Karina was not a worthy character.
During the 2007 trip, these two get into several situations that could have been funny but they are told so seriously that I didn’t find any comedy in them. Indeed, the main characters rarely laugh at their predicament either. There’s not even any slap stick humor. All told, this wasn’t the story I was expecting. 3/5 stars.
The Narration: Richard L. Walton has a very good cowboy voice. I liked his deep voice for J. L. While he gets a B for effort on attempting distinct character voices, he didn’t usually achieve clear, distinct character voices. Sometimes he used a lighter voice for the ladies, but not always and he pretty much only had the 1 female character voice. For the male characters, he relied on attitude and emotions rather than actual different voices, with the exception of doing a deeper voice for a very minor character mentioned by Karina as she went over a memory. His pacing was good. I did notice some background noise (rustling paper?) once or twice. I liked how he handled J. L.’s rudimentary Spanish while being pretty smooth with Karina’s native Spanish. 3/5 stars.
I received a free copy of this book.