Covey Jencks

Covey Jencks, for the most part, takes place in West – by God – Texas, in Odessa.  If you have ever been there, even passing through, it would definitely add to the ambiance of this story.  If you haven’t been there – it’s okay.  But when you’re trying to visualize the setting and you’re seeing nothing, you’re not doing it wrong.  And it’s not the author’s fault, either.  That’s just West – by God – Texas.  The author does a pretty good job of capturing the essence of racial boundaries and the “good ol’ boy” concept of that era.  If you enjoy the conflict of fiction, then you will love this story.  Conflict exists on multiple layers, yet they all flow together very smoothly, and I love the way Williams kneaded the conflict to arrive at the ultimate climax.  (Good luck trying to put this book down during the last 75 pages or so.)  It was very evident from the beginning of the book that the author had a story to tell, and he told it quite well.

The Oddity of Covey Jencks

I found several things in this book to be quite odd.  I read the paperback edition, so I do not know whether these oddities found their way into the Kindle edition.

The first oddity was the Table of Contents (ToC).  Of the 74 chapters and Afterward listed in the ToC, why is Chapter 4 displayed in a different font than all the others?

I also found it a bit odd that the book included a Cast of Characters just before the ToC.  I’ve seen a Cast of Characters in a few other books, but they were mostly fantasy or “pretty far out there” in terms of realism.  However, there are quite a few characters in this story, and I’m sure the Cast of Characters could help a reader.  Since I’m not used to having that in a book, I completely forgot about it until I was finished.

Also, why is there so much white space in this book?  The top and bottom margins are HUGE!

The final oddity I noticed was the lack of page numbers in the Afterward.  Maybe that’s common, I don’t know.  I’m not sure I ever read a book with an Afterward before.  I read plenty of Epilogues, though.  However, I did enjoy reading the short Afterward.  The author provides some insight into how the story came about, as well as some other tidbits of information about the author’s life.

Technically Speaking

There were a number of SPAG issues throughout the book.  There were some obvious typos, and…  Have you ever wanted to order a large box of commas from Amazon and have it direct-shipped to the author?  It’s like that.  However, the SPAG issues did not take away from my enjoyment of the story!  That’s important to mention.

The pacing was quite good.  As is the case with many stories, it was slow in the beginning, sped up in the middle, and the last third of the book was just a non-stop build in conflict.  What makes this story somewhat unique for a mystery is that the murder took place years earlier.  Further, it wasn’t even an unsolved case.  Someone did prison time for the murder.  But Covey Jencks had to find out the truth.

There was a delightful reveal about a character’s backstory at the very end of the story.  It was very unexpected, but it really added to my enjoyment of the book.

I totally admit that I am partial to stories that take place in Texas, and I’ve read quite a few of them.  It was very nice to read a story that takes place there.  I don’t think West Texas gets anywhere near its share of the glory that is Texas.  So, bravo Shelton L. Williams for giving West Texas some literary light!