AIN’T NOBODY NOBODY

by

HEATHER HARPER ELLETT

  Genre: Murder Mystery / Southern Noir / Dark Humor

Publisher: Polis Books

Date of Publication: September 24, 2019

Number of Pages: 336

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Named a Best Debut of Fall/Winter 2019 by Library Journal, Ain’t Nobody Nobody is the story of a disgraced East Texas sheriff, his dead best friend’s surly teenage daughter, and a naive ranch hand who find unlikely redemption in a murdered hog hunter on a fence.

Part Breaking Bad and part Faulkner, this tragi-comic mystery is perfect for readers who enjoy dark humor (think Fargo) and like their crime fiction with a literary flare.

A Best Mystery of 2019 by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It’s 1996 in a dysfunctional small East Texas town. It is a time before cell phones and computers and when rifles were commonplace in pickup trucks. It is a time when people knew their neighbors and would help each other out should the need arise. But when a dead body is found, it changes beliefs and perceptions until the truth isn’t decipherable anymore.

While this book is fiction, there is a mystery peppered throughout the pages that had me questioning my thoughts about various characters as the story meandered down dark paths revealing truths that cast them in a light one may not expect. The author provides for a twist or two which erases all that you thought you knew to be true about the story you have read and the characters you have come to understand.

This story is also about losing family and friends, finding love, uncovering the truth, and learning to continue with life despite the curveballs thrown your way. There are dogs and hogs…the dogs are wanted, the hogs are not. And in true Texas fashion, an obsession with Dr. Pepper because no other beverage will do for some.

If you are looking for a fast-paced book, this is not the book to read. The book slowly reveals the truth, much like petals unfolding while a rose blooms. I took my time reading this book so I could embrace the characters, the town, and how I felt about each character. It is somewhat dark and deals with death, deception, drugs, and despair. But there is some hope at the end and multiple possibilities when it comes to how the story ends.

Some of my favorite lines:

“Mayhill approached life like hand-to-hand combat.”

“Lying required an intellect that Bradley simply did not possess.”

“Even at the road’s worst, when it took a nail-biting, gut-jiggling forty-five minutes to drive only two or three miles, it never occurred to anyone to get out of their trucks and walk, any more than it would occur to a bird to take the bus to Cancun for winter.”

“The air conditioner was so high that Pat Sajak shut his eyes and his short hair managed to somehow to blowback dreamily in the stream of air.”

“Bradley was nobody to everybody. That was the beauty of Bradley, if there was a beauty to him.”

“The dog flopped down next to Pat Sajak on the porch, with Boo and Atticus on the other side, and Mayhill realized then her name was Vanna because dog names are revealed; they are not chosen.”

“All of the juices of Birdie’s rebellion dried up right then, and she ran through the thicket and back to the house, the limbs tearing at her jeans like claws.”

“it’s a slippery slope, letting go of your ethics.”

“He couldn’t breathe and his chest tightened in the confusion of it all – a baking soda and vinegar mix of shame and redemption that threatened to erupt in him.”

“Revenge was for scorned ex-wives and small-town football teams. This was of greater consequence. This was karma.”

“An entire CBS mini-series of scenarios played out in his head, assassination attempts from the simplest (sniper drive-by) to the most complex (Rube Goldberg machines, infinite knives) and Mayhill twitched as he thought about it.”

We give this book 4 paws up.

Born and raised in East Texas, Heather Harper Ellett is a graduate of SMU and a therapist in private practice. She lives in Dallas with her husband and son.

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 THREE SIGNED HARDCOVER COPIES

  January 2-12, 2020

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