Field of View

by Jack Pirtle

On her nineteenth birthday, a girl jumps to her death from the window of a twenty-two story Dallas hotel. The ramifications of her suicide soon reach the backwaters of a rural God-fearing town ninety miles northeast of Dallas. In the early fifties, Mayweather, Texas, is a town where the social order is stratified, women are often objectified, people of color suffer from the sting and humiliation of racial oppression and seemingly ordinary lives often harbor dark secrets. Everything heats up when a shocking Polaroid photograph is discovered by a cleaning lady at the town’s shabby and disheveled Lone Star Hotel. The image is pornographic. Protagonist J.B. Turman, likes to tie up loose ends and for things to make sense. He thinks he can recall having seen the girl in the photograph elsewhere. But, where and when? Disturbed by the image and the possibility that a pornographer is on the loose, he organizes a disparate group of citizens to investigate.

414 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2014

Reviews

[Stephanie Jackson]

I read the first 100 pages or so and then set this book aside for a year. I need to get this copy back to my mom (who is bff with the wife of the author, so I felt obligated to finish too). I don't know why I put the book down, as once I started reading again, I had no troubles remembering who was who and what was happening. I suspect that I just wasn't focused at the beginning of the book, but it ended strong. Apparently the sequel is out and now I need to read that too! There's dark stuff that happens in this book but it's well handled and never felt gratuitous.

[Lynnita]

Fun, folksy fictional family story set in east Texas loosely based on growing up years of the author ( who happens to be my uncle). Recommended!

[Emily]

A true page turner, can't wait for the sequel!