Give-a-Damn Jones

by Bill Pronzini

A Novel of the West
Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Bill Pronzini debuts a thrilling western with expert storytelling and a mysterious hero who will appeal to Pronzini's Nameless fans.

Not all the folks who roamed the Old West were cowhands, rustlers, or cardsharps. And they certainly weren’t all heroes.

Give-a-Damn Jones, a free-spirited itinerant typographer, hates his nickname almost as much as the rumors spread about him. He’s a kind soul who keeps finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That’s what happened in Box Elder, a small Montana town. Tensions are running high, and anything (or anyone) could be the fuse to ignite them: a recently released convict trying to prove his innocence, a prominent cattleman who craves respect at any cost, a wily traveling dentist at odds with a violent local blacksmith, or a firebrand of an editor who is determined to unlock the town’s secrets.

Jones walks into the middle of it all, and this time, he may be the hero that this town needs.

Genres: Westerns, Audiobook, Mystery, Historical Fiction, Historical

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 8, 2018

About the author

Mystery Writers of America Awards "Grand Master" 2008
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1999) for Boobytrap
Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee (1998) for A Wasteland of Strangers
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) for Sentinels
Shamus Awards "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) 1987
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1982) for Hoodwink

Married to author Marcia Muller.

Pseudonyms:
Robert Hart Davis (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Jack Foxx
William Jeffrey (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Alex Saxon

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of Pronzini's better efforts.

[Cathy Geha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Give-a-Damn Jones by Bill Pronzini

Big smile on my face as I type this review :)

Why? Well…my father put himself through school working as a printer and his stories of being a printer, friendships with printers and his collection of beautifully printed documents lead me and my siblings to choose printing instead of shop or home economics as our electives in high school. As I read about the typesetting and the terms used to describe the press and ink and everything else…so many memories were tapped that I sat and smiled then smiled again because…the book also tapped memories of reading my father’s collection of westerns…and in many ways this story of itinerate journeyman printer Artemas Give-A-Damn Jones made this Sunday a splendid one for me as I revisited the historical past of the United States but also my own.

The way this story is told made me think of Mark Twain, O’Henry and also of other authors from the past. It is told by various supporting characters who encounter Artemas but we never really hear from the main character except a few times in dialogue. Artemas may or may not have a reputation that is exaggerated – kind of like that of Paul Bunyan – but in truth he is bigger than life and a man I would love to meet.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan-Tor/Forge for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

[Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bill Pronzini is a mystery Grand Master I've been reading forever. This western was a nice change of pace for me.

Enjoyed the multiple POV's to the deliberate, slow-building story of a small town in pre-statehood Montana.

[Ulrich Krieghund · Rating 1 out of 5]

An alluring cover and title had me grabbing this one on display at my local library. An unorthodox hero of the Old West in a tale spun through the eyes of various characters. So dull a story that I quit halfway through. I could have hung around for the rest of the boring read, but I suppose I just did not give a damn about what happened to him.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 2018 western by author Pronzini seems to be his first genre western (except the John Quincannon series of frontier detective work) in almost 30 years. It seems a perfect setup for a series and I hope we'll see one. Each chapter is written by a character in the novel: the editor, the sheriff, the blacksmith, the ex-convict, the big rancher, etc. A novel approach and it works. A very enjoyable, quick read.

Give-a-Damn Jones, a free-spirited itinerant typographer, hates his nickname almost as much as the rumors spread about him. He’s a kind soul who keeps finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s what happened in Box Elder, a small Montana town. Tensions were running high and anything could be the fuse to ignite them: a recently released convict trying to prove his innocence, a prominent cattleman who craves respect at any cost, a wily traveling dentist at odds with a violent local blacksmith, or a firebrand of an editor who is determined to print his opinions. Jones walks into the middle of it all, and this time, he may be the hero that this town needs.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple enjoyable read which doesn't get to violent. Told alternately in the first person from different characters in a small Western town of the 19th century. The author does that very well without losing the thread of the story.

[Bookreporter.com Mystery & Thriller · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would be impossible to exaggerate Bill Pronzini’s contribution to genre fiction. Every contemporary mystery or thriller author in the business is either directly or indirectly beholden to him. A seeming force of nature, Pronzini has edited seemingly countless anthologies introducing neophyte readers to crime literature and veteran ones to new authors. This he has done while devoting his own prodigious writing talents to such long-running series as The Nameless Detective and writing literally hundreds of short stories.

Pronzini also has been known to turn his hand to the western genre while frequently bringing a unique take to a setting that otherwise would seem limited or constraining. In the newly published GIVE-A-DAMN JONES, he demonstrates that there remains plenty of stories to be mined.

This latest book offers a very unique take on an often overlooked fixture of the American West, that of the itinerant typesetter. The format of the novel is worth the price of admission all by itself. It is narrated from several different and rotating perspectives, each of which gives the reader a description of sorts of Artemas “Give-a-Damn” Jones, who, during the late 19th century in which the story is set, is the best-known newspaper typographer in the West. His fame, though, is not entirely due to the skill set he brings to his chosen profession. Jones has a reputation for inadvertently finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and quickly becoming involved, deliberately or otherwise but always with reluctance, in quarrels not his own. This involuntary penchant has earned Jones his nickname, which, as we learn soon enough, he does not care for. Be that as it may, he does his best --- accidentally or not --- to live up to it.

Most of the book occurs in Box Elder, Montana, where the somewhat nomadic Jones has stopped in search of employment. He finds it at the Banner, the town newspaper, where his skills make him a valued employee. While Jones is only in town for a few weeks, he manages to restore a reputation, save a couple of lives, rid the town of a walking scourge, and accomplish other things as well. Pronzini keeps some minor plot plates spinning throughout his tale, all of them set against the backdrop of Box Elder, which has just enough problems to keep the sheriff busy. Jones gives into his wanderlust all too quickly, but leaves the town a better place than when he arrived. And that’s really what everything --- in the fictional world and the real one --- is all about, isn’t it?

GIVE-A-DAMN JONES reminds me of the Helen Fuller Orton mysteries of my youth, and I’m giving Pronzini one of my largest compliments with that statement. The Orton books always occurred in one place with a small cast of characters who bumped up against each other, but everything turned out okay in the end. Here, Pronzini gives us a number of interconnected stories with Jones as the appealing glue. It’s a tale of a different time, better in some ways and not in others, with enough timely research to almost make you taste the grit in the streets and the cheap whiskey in the town taverns. In other words, it rarely, if ever, gets any better than this.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining G-rated western story. Multiple narrators was fantastic and reminded me of old radio dramas.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 3.0 of 5

Bill Pronzini is a wonderful workhorse of a writer. I've been reading him since I was in college and that was a few decades ago. I've enjoyed many of his Quincannon series books and some of his Nameless Detectives books. I'm always up for reading a Pronzini book because I know I'll get a first-rate story with solid characters.

Give-A-Damn Jones is about a freelance typesetter who wanders the West lending his typesetting talents to newspapers all over the land. He's not very fond of his "Give-a-Damn" nickname but the name is appropriate because Artemis Jones isn't one to back down or walk away just because the going gets tough. When he walks into Box Elder, Montana he meets up with the local newspaper editor who is passionate about telling it like it is and instigating change. But the town is full of characters, such as the tough blacksmith with a reputation for cheating his customers; a travelling medicine show/dentist ready to pull teeth for free but recommending his alcohol/medicine to ease the pain; the former convict still trying to clear his name; the rancher who may have lied to convict the man (to protect his daughter); and the local sheriff who knows there needs to be some changes but isn't quite ready to mix it up. If Artemis Jones knew he was walking into a town so on the verge of exploding from within, he may have ridden past. But he's there now, and, well, he'll just give a damn.

It took me some time to get comfortable with this story. The book is written in first person and as I read, I noted that the first nine chapters were each told from the view point of someone different, and none of them Artemis Jones. Finally, then, we got some characters to tell their story in recurring chapters, and I began to understand what Pronzini was doing.

Jones doesn't talk or write about himself. If you want the story on him, he need to get it from everyone who's made contact with him, and that's how Pronzini is telling this story. And because they are first person accounts, we get a few additional details ... some sub-plots that don't necessarily affect Jones directly.

This is an interesting read for its format and style. The characters are solid and real but a bit uninteresting. The town people's dysfunction is what makes them interesting and a the community gets sorted out we lose interest.

I also found it humorous that the itinerant typesetter lifestyle was known and respected in towns like Box Elder, Montana. I don't know my American history well enough to know if this was true or not, but I suspect this was Pronzini having a little fun.

Looking for a good book? Give-A-Damn Jones by Bill Pronzini is a western without the stereotypical gunslinger and it's the format of the book that is more interesting than the story.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun standalone novel set in Eastern Montana in the late 1800's. "Give a Damn" is the nickname of Artemas Jones, since he always seems to be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. He is a traveling typesetter in the western states, otherwise known as a tramp printer. We learn a lot about this trade and small town newspaper publishing, in an enjoyable way. Each of the chapters is given the title of one of the characters, and is narrated by that character (some get multiple chapters). The action takes place in a town called Box Elder which has a lot of trouble one week in particular. The plot is hugely enjoyable, and includes a wrongly convicted man, his lady friend, a "painless dentist" traveling in a shiny coach with an assistant, the marshal, the editor of the newspaper, a violent blacksmith, and a landowner. And a thief dying of lung disease. Enjoy yourself with this one !!

[Barley · Rating 3 out of 5]

- Demonstrates strong knowledge of both the historical period and the protagonist’s occupation as a typographer.
- Offers thoughtful, story-driven commentary on significant issues at the time, including immigrant hardship, war, and the struggles of farming life.
- Introduces rich and engaging vocabulary, offering many new and interesting words.
- Clarity sometimes suffers as sentences become buried beneath overly complex structure.
- Despite lending his name to the title, the character Give-a-Damn Jones seems to shrink into the background while an alternative— admittedly compelling— storyline takes center stage.
- Demonstrates good physical variation across most of the cast, in exception to the book’s only notable female character, whose sparse description is limited almost entirely to her beauty and... buxom... nature.

Despite being an enjoyable read, this novel's larger issues are too substantial to overlook, placing it firmly at my rating of three stars.

[Carma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book on the best seller table as I was leaving the library this week and just grabbed it. Started it this morning and finished before going to bed. I loved it. Such an easy read. Love the way this author writes. It reminded me of going to the old western movies with my family when I was young. Everything was spelled out clearly, no deep thinking required. Good guys, bad guys, love story. Haven't read a book to just get lost in like this for a while.

I have never heard of this author before. Comments on the jacket cover: Bill Ponzini has been nominated for, or won, every prize offered to crime fiction writers, including the Grand Master Award from the Master Writers of America. Going to order another one from the library.

[Barry Martin Vass · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. In 1880's Montana, Artemas "Give-A-Damn" Jones is an itinerant typesetter who drifts around the Northwest looking to secure short-term jobs setting type for various newspapers. Jones came about his nickname the old fashioned way: by doing a variety of good deeds for folks in the Wild West while going about living his life. But things rise to a whole different level when he takes a job at the Banner in Box Elder. Shootings, treachery on a widespread level, backstabbing, and all the violence of the times take place during Jones' visit. Bill Pronzini, winner of the Mystery Writers' of America Grand Master Award, tells Give-A-Damn Jones in such a smooth and well thought out manner that this is fun and very easy to read.

[Jess · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was such a disappointment! I love reading westerns, but I admit the genre has to be well written for me to be interested. The catchy title is what got me to check out this book from the library, but the book really had nothing to do with the character, instead it mostly focused on a Montana town that Jones stumbles upon. I kept reading hoping it would get interesting, however, it never really did. The book is such a short read that once I had 50 pages left I forced myself to continue on. Overall, I feel like this book was a total waste of my time and would want to encourage other readers to save their time and look for another book.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Artemis Jones wanders about and often finds himself in the middle of somebody else's mess and cleans it up. He'd rather keep to himself but trouble just seems to find him.

That's the gist of the novel. What's even more interesting, our protagonist makes few appearances. The side characters take center stage; it is their trouble, after all. What makes the novel better than it sounds is its unique multiple-character first-person POV. The author uses it with great skill to set up all the sticky situations in which Jones unwittingly and reluctantly plays a key role.

It's a fun read.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version of this book which is read by several people and it was done wonderfully! I don’t usually go in for Westerns but this book, which tells the story of Give a Damn Jones, an itinerant type setter who is always seems to be in the wrong place at the right time to make sure justice is done. This particular book focuses on Jone’s time in Box Elder, Montana where a number of situations need addressing. The characters are England the story well told.

[Jeri Gabrielson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Give-A-Damn Jones is an itinerant typographer in the old west. His reputation precedes him when he arrives in Box Elder, Montana. The narrative is told through each of the participants including the newspaper owner, the sheriff, the ex-con and the man who framed him. Add a traveling dentist and the cast of characters live through a raucous few weeks.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining tale of fictional but possible events in the town of Box Elder, MT before the turn of the 20th century. There's a sheriff, a newspaperman and some tradesman as well as ranchers and "setters" Also a "painless" traveling dentist. Give a Damn drifts into town as a typesetter tramp, altho I never really knew about that kind of guy before

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book I wanted to like but was left underwhelmed.
The use of first person narration for all the characters bar our title character was interesting at first but became dull and somewhat confusing as it went on.
The greater failing was that the plot was too minimal for the length of the book.
The writing was of course very readable and competent but I have really high expectations when it comes to Bill Pronzini.

[Mary Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable enough to listen to...several narrators made the characters come to life. I will say that my husband and I listened to this right on the heels 0f Sean Dietrich's "The Incredible Winston Browne" and it wasn't nearly as good (even to the point of narration, despite the fact that "Give-a-damn" had multiple narrators).

[Cherie Waggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not big on westerns, but Bill Pronzini is my favorite author. I've read some of his stand alone books and all of the Nameless Detective books, which made him my favorite author. This book is written with the inimitable Pronzini style and kept me wondering what was going to happen next. I was eager to get to the conclusion to see how it all worked out.

[John R Urry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn , I've read a whole lot of books by Bill Pronzini , but this is my first western novel. What a fun , fun story ...........Give a Damn Jones is a terrific Character, but only one of many.............Good Stuff !

[Leigh R · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a classic (and not too violent) Western told by many characters living in a Montana frontier town. It was a quick, lively story and I'd enjoy reading more about wandering typesetter Artemis Jones's adventures.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was like a 2.75. 2.5 for the story, but the narration was good so it gets a slight bump. I'm not sure why I finished it, except I didn't have anything else to listen to until everything came in all at once.

[Kenneth Flusche · Rating 5 out of 5]

200 characters a minuet mmmm, no I was never that fast, not even close. and justifying with leads, brasses, and coppers ugg. My composing stick is gathering dust. Wait this is a western, with horses, cattle, and gunplay. A Good Read

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read.

[Justin F Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's fun. It's clever. I enjoyed the structure of individual views especially when they discussed Artemis. I'll definitely check out more of Bill Pronzini's work.

JW

[Larry Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting!

[Doug Mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining tail
Enjoyed varying points od view as each chapter told by a different character

[Marlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

A easy read about likable characters in an American Western town. Set in 1890s.