Cowboy Code

by Louella Bryant

Crazy about cowboy movies, fourteen-year-old Bobbie Grey uses Gene Autry’s code of honor as her moral guide. When her father is killed in an explosion at the paper mill, her mother takes a job at the mill and becomes enamored with co-worker Phoenix. Bobbie yearns for her mother’s attention while secretly in love with Covey, a young boxer from the African settlement. Burr, a Navy man on leave, woos Maggie and when he ships out, Phoenix declares her love for Maggie and becomes Bobbie’s ally. When Bobbie takes forbidden walks to the African settlement, Covey’s family takes her in. During the night, Klansmen come for Covey and beat him, accusing him of prowling. Phoenix begs Maggie to leave Burr but she refuses until she discovers him with another woman. From Phoenix, Bobbie learns that love transcends race and gender and that it sometimes requires the ultimate sacrifice—letting go.

265 pages, Paperback

Published August 8, 2019

About the author

Louella Bryant’s novel WILLIE, RUM RUNNING QUEEN launched in early 2025 with Black Rose Writing. Her 2023 novel SHELTERING ANGEL, BASED ON A TRUE STORY OF THE TITANIC, has been a #1 bestseller on Amazon Kindle. Hot Springs and Moonshine Liquor, a family memoir follows the historic trail of bootleg liquor since the Revolutionary War. Louella's WWII novel Cowboy Code is based on the true story of a Virginia mountain town. Other books include While In Darkness There Is Light, nonfiction about the Vietnam era, a story collection, and two Civil War novels for young adult readers. Her award-winning writing has appeared in magazines and anthologies. A graduate of George Washington University and Vermont College of Fine Arts, Louella works as an independent editor. Visit her website at https://louellabryant.com.

Reviews

[Sally Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cowboy Code is a coming of age story about Bobbie, a 14-year old girl growing up in rural Virginia during the World War II era. When her father is killed in a mill accident Bobbie’s world is profoundly shaken. Bobbie watches her mother try to pay bills with paltry mill wages and then suffer the abuses of her new lover--a drunken sailor. Bobbie is confronted with racism when she befriends a Black girl. She struggles to discover her own sexual identity in the face of narrow-minded folks who see fit to judge those outside their own moral standards.
This story is about people who can transcend race and gender to find friendship and love, while having to let go of what is comfortable. The writing is this book is as rugged and raw as the people and mountains of Appalachia. Unlike how southerners are often portrayed outside the South, the characters in this story are complex and lead complicated lives that propels the reader from one chapter to the next, hoping Bobbie and her folks' lives will improve. The book does not end with the characters living happily ever after, but does leave the reader with the feeling that even those facing life's hardest challenges can find hope through perseverance and grit.

[Louella Bryant]

Author Jim DeFilippi writes: “This story of an intelligent, sensitive girl stumbling her way into womanhood in 1940s Appalachia is meticulously crafted and artfully delivered. Bryant shows us the tastes of Christmas meals, the stench of a mill town mixing with bakery donuts, the shame of masturbation and racism, the brutal power of violence, jealousy and death. The author weaves her story with the sensitivity and style of Harper Lee.” This is the story of three women struggling to find love and fulfillment amidst poverty, racism, and social taboos. Life is difficult, but the three women find support and redemption in each other.