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Boot Tracks
"Brilliantly chilling. A nightmare thriller with the power to haunt." - Kirkus Reviews *Starred Review
"Jones is a rare stylist - readers looking for an intense, affecting experience shouldn't miss this one." - Peter Handel, Pages Magazine
"An artful novel enlivened by some of the best low-life dialogue this side of Elmore Leonard." - Patrick Andersen, The Washington Post
"Superlatives have been sapped of their meaning by overzealous critics, and somehow it sounds fake to say that a book is one of the "best things" you've "read all year." It's just that, sometimes {as in the case of Matthew F. Jones's "Boot Tracks"} that happens to be true. I haven't read something that made me empathize with a bad guy this intensely since I read "In Cold Blood" in high school." - Katie Haegele, The Philadelphia Inquirer
"The sense of horrible inevitability is almost overpowering here. If only Jean-Pierre Melville (Bob le Flambeur) were still alive to make the movie version." - Bill Ott, Booklist
"'Boot Tracks, by Matthew F. Jones, is a stunning crime novel - and one you won't soon forget." - Guy Savage, Mostly Fiction Book Reviews
Boot Tracks is a commanding tale of a man and a woman struggling against a destiny they cannot control, told in Matthew F. Jones' characteristically taut, economic style. An assassination gone terribly wrong; a couple searching for one last chance to find a safe place in a hostile world. With these elements Jones weaves a harrowing tale of suspense, violence and compassion.
Charlie Rankin has recently been released from prison, but prison has not released its grip on him. He owes his life to "The Buddha," who has given him a job to do on the he must kill a man, a man who has done him no harm, a man he has never met. Along the road to this brutal encounter, Rankin meets Florence, who may be an angel in disguise or simply a lonely ex porn star seeking salvation. Together they careen towards their fate, taking the reader along for the ride.
"Jones is a rare stylist - readers looking for an intense, affecting experience shouldn't miss this one." - Peter Handel, Pages Magazine
"An artful novel enlivened by some of the best low-life dialogue this side of Elmore Leonard." - Patrick Andersen, The Washington Post
"Superlatives have been sapped of their meaning by overzealous critics, and somehow it sounds fake to say that a book is one of the "best things" you've "read all year." It's just that, sometimes {as in the case of Matthew F. Jones's "Boot Tracks"} that happens to be true. I haven't read something that made me empathize with a bad guy this intensely since I read "In Cold Blood" in high school." - Katie Haegele, The Philadelphia Inquirer
"The sense of horrible inevitability is almost overpowering here. If only Jean-Pierre Melville (Bob le Flambeur) were still alive to make the movie version." - Bill Ott, Booklist
"'Boot Tracks, by Matthew F. Jones, is a stunning crime novel - and one you won't soon forget." - Guy Savage, Mostly Fiction Book Reviews
Boot Tracks is a commanding tale of a man and a woman struggling against a destiny they cannot control, told in Matthew F. Jones' characteristically taut, economic style. An assassination gone terribly wrong; a couple searching for one last chance to find a safe place in a hostile world. With these elements Jones weaves a harrowing tale of suspense, violence and compassion.
Charlie Rankin has recently been released from prison, but prison has not released its grip on him. He owes his life to "The Buddha," who has given him a job to do on the he must kill a man, a man who has done him no harm, a man he has never met. Along the road to this brutal encounter, Rankin meets Florence, who may be an angel in disguise or simply a lonely ex porn star seeking salvation. Together they careen towards their fate, taking the reader along for the ride.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
4 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
About the author
Matthew F. Jones
15 books23 followersMatthew F. Jones, is an American novelist and screenwriter who grew up in rural upstate New York and currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 5, 2019
shit, man, i don't know what just happened here...
i thought i would read a book by matthew f jones, to counteract my recent 0 for 2 book streak because i thought at least i knew what i was getting into with him, having just finished and loved A Single Shot last week.
this one was... different from that one.
i am still trying to decide whether it is genius or a mess. i am leaning towards genius, but i think this is a book i am going to have to read again. in a way, it seems perfect, but when i start to think about it and break down the individual scenes, it ends up falling apart a little into some sort of lynchian cutting-room floor situation .it's not super-surreal or anything, but there is a very specific and familiar tension throughout, and discomfort. and some character-doubling and unreliable memories.
i was anticipating a straightforward novel with a moral gray area, but a plot pretty much grounded in strict realism. i got my moral gray area, but i got a little more dark surrealism than i had been banking on. the scenes seem unmoored, but in a way that makes my brain happy and puzzled and wondering if it really is the metaphor i am hoping it is.
a single shot was way jim thompson-y, in a respectful way, not as me calling it derivative. this one reminded me more of Nick Antosca than Jim Thompson, although it is less likely jones has read him. this is a dark little set piece that i imagine is on the glass table in hell's waiting room. read it and get one last opportunity to regret some shit before you burn for all eternity kind of thing.
this character is deeply wounded, plagued by memories and trying to fulfill an obligation towards a man who has been at once a spiritual figure and an abuser, unsure what is real and what might hopefully be a dream. it involves killing and a bag full of money. and a dame.
this book always strives for the grotesque:
behind the register a door marked "employees toilet" opened; a bleached blonde with bad teeth, pimply skin, and a six-inch stump for a right arm came out of the room trailing a bad stink
...five or six trash bags partially hidden amid drink containers, hamburger cartons, styrofoam coffee cups, a cat cadaver, its black and white head, streaming with maggots, grotesquely misaligned, facing the air immediately over its spine
cats, dogs, foxes, fish, a goat - animals do not fare well in this book. so much for me thinking europa was all classy books for gloved women and monocled men.this book has some serious gross in it.
this is a europa i expect elizabeth will avoid.
but now i am intrigued. jones has two books in print, and now i have read both of them and am desperately (i'm looking at you, bill thompson) awaiting some of his others because so far, i have loved them both, but they have left me unsettled, and i still don't have a clear sense of who this guy is as an author.
but i want to know. badly.
this review is kind of a mess, but let's call it an homage, shall we?
come to my blog!
i thought i would read a book by matthew f jones, to counteract my recent 0 for 2 book streak because i thought at least i knew what i was getting into with him, having just finished and loved A Single Shot last week.
this one was... different from that one.
i am still trying to decide whether it is genius or a mess. i am leaning towards genius, but i think this is a book i am going to have to read again. in a way, it seems perfect, but when i start to think about it and break down the individual scenes, it ends up falling apart a little into some sort of lynchian cutting-room floor situation .it's not super-surreal or anything, but there is a very specific and familiar tension throughout, and discomfort. and some character-doubling and unreliable memories.
i was anticipating a straightforward novel with a moral gray area, but a plot pretty much grounded in strict realism. i got my moral gray area, but i got a little more dark surrealism than i had been banking on. the scenes seem unmoored, but in a way that makes my brain happy and puzzled and wondering if it really is the metaphor i am hoping it is.
a single shot was way jim thompson-y, in a respectful way, not as me calling it derivative. this one reminded me more of Nick Antosca than Jim Thompson, although it is less likely jones has read him. this is a dark little set piece that i imagine is on the glass table in hell's waiting room. read it and get one last opportunity to regret some shit before you burn for all eternity kind of thing.
this character is deeply wounded, plagued by memories and trying to fulfill an obligation towards a man who has been at once a spiritual figure and an abuser, unsure what is real and what might hopefully be a dream. it involves killing and a bag full of money. and a dame.
this book always strives for the grotesque:
behind the register a door marked "employees toilet" opened; a bleached blonde with bad teeth, pimply skin, and a six-inch stump for a right arm came out of the room trailing a bad stink
...five or six trash bags partially hidden amid drink containers, hamburger cartons, styrofoam coffee cups, a cat cadaver, its black and white head, streaming with maggots, grotesquely misaligned, facing the air immediately over its spine
cats, dogs, foxes, fish, a goat - animals do not fare well in this book. so much for me thinking europa was all classy books for gloved women and monocled men.this book has some serious gross in it.
this is a europa i expect elizabeth will avoid.
but now i am intrigued. jones has two books in print, and now i have read both of them and am desperately (i'm looking at you, bill thompson) awaiting some of his others because so far, i have loved them both, but they have left me unsettled, and i still don't have a clear sense of who this guy is as an author.
but i want to know. badly.
this review is kind of a mess, but let's call it an homage, shall we?
come to my blog!
April 19, 2013
I discovered Matthew F. Jones from a goodreads list pinging off of Daniel Woodrell (Winter's Bone). I'm so glad I did. This book blew me away. Storyline is a guy gets out of jail tasked with a mission to kill someone, in part to payback the protection he received while in jail. Charlie (or Little Charlie, or Samson) ends up on an odyssey of horror real and imagined, accompanied by Florence (or Lulu). Those visions poke hard, really hard, at the roots of violence (and violent fantasies) and the unlikely miracle of goodness.
July 6, 2010
Surprisingly good. Really enjoyed this -- will be looking for more novels by this author; apparently he's written quite a few.
July 27, 2012
Soon to be a major motion picture.
July 18, 2017
Noir doesn't work so well when the characters are Nietzsche half the time and the other half have brains full of somnolent worms. Way too many lazy dream conceits and let's just say toward the end i urgently read just to finish.
February 20, 2015
20 feb 15, friday
#3 from jones, matthew f for me.
just started...7:09 a.m. e.s.t. freakin cold outside, 20 below on the f-scale...furnace working but the air inside feels cold. gull darn obama and these open borders, letting this siberian express through. what's-a-matter, him?
20 feb 15, 6:50 p.m. e.s.t.
finished...so...quick read...200+ pages. good story. 3rd person, past, jones nails it. charlie is something else...set up to kill a man...there's a multitude of short brief journeys to charles past...trouble this troubled that. it'd be spoiler if i said, right? but i liked how that worked in the narrative...italicized sections...help explain the man. a few clunky sentences i had to read a few times but maybe that's just me.
it did warm up...'bout 20 above...so it moved 40 degrees. hope it don't get as cold tonight...cloudy...so maybe not, few flakes in the air earlier.
call this...what? hillbilly noir? reader in the other called it southern gothic, even though that story is set in new york, but you maybe get the drift. a bit surprising that more don't read this guy's stories...as i've enjoyed them all.
onward upward
#3 from jones, matthew f for me.
just started...7:09 a.m. e.s.t. freakin cold outside, 20 below on the f-scale...furnace working but the air inside feels cold. gull darn obama and these open borders, letting this siberian express through. what's-a-matter, him?
20 feb 15, 6:50 p.m. e.s.t.
finished...so...quick read...200+ pages. good story. 3rd person, past, jones nails it. charlie is something else...set up to kill a man...there's a multitude of short brief journeys to charles past...trouble this troubled that. it'd be spoiler if i said, right? but i liked how that worked in the narrative...italicized sections...help explain the man. a few clunky sentences i had to read a few times but maybe that's just me.
it did warm up...'bout 20 above...so it moved 40 degrees. hope it don't get as cold tonight...cloudy...so maybe not, few flakes in the air earlier.
call this...what? hillbilly noir? reader in the other called it southern gothic, even though that story is set in new york, but you maybe get the drift. a bit surprising that more don't read this guy's stories...as i've enjoyed them all.
onward upward
Read
July 16, 2010Charlie Rankin, newly released from prison, has been sent on an errand. "The Buddha", the man who gave him protection on the inside has given him the name of a man that he wants killed, a man Charlie has never seen. Not the least of his challenges in getting the job done is that he can’t distinguish what is real from what his overheated imagination is creating. Did he go to the right house? Did he kill the right man, or any man at all for that matter? How can he know for sure?
This is good stuff if you enjoy noir crime fiction. You’re carried along with Charlie on his ill-fated mission, realizing as the story progresses that you are experiencing events as seen by a very disordered mind. It’s a compelling trip to the dark side. --Ardis
From ICPL Staff Picks Blog
This is good stuff if you enjoy noir crime fiction. You’re carried along with Charlie on his ill-fated mission, realizing as the story progresses that you are experiencing events as seen by a very disordered mind. It’s a compelling trip to the dark side. --Ardis
From ICPL Staff Picks Blog
January 18, 2017
nasty, brutish, but short!
May 29, 2017
There are definitely some good parts, and usually that earns at least two stars from me. But the bad parts were THAT bad. The writing is chock-full of run-on sentences, or just run-on parenthetical statements that make you forget the clauses that preceded them. And if I hear one more damn thing about Little Charlie or Chester Rhimes, I'm going to...umm...swear really loudly at the book I'm reading and throw it across the room? The only actions to encompass my disgust at the overuse of these two "characters" are violent and out of my character.
Plus, back to the writing...Jones has this habit of dislodging the object of a sentence and throwing at the end; a structure that, while grammatically correct, leaves you re-reading it, perhaps multiple times, to figure out what the hell he's saying. "He kicked with his good foot the rock along the path." (Not an actual example, it's one I made up, but structurally, it drives home my point.)
I like the parts with animals, where it becomes apparent that Jones is aiming for parallels between them and Charlie Rankin. The ending stirs your emotions a bit, too, while delivering some twists. But there were just far too many parts of this story that flew past my eyes, without me knowing, or caring, what the hell they were saying to me.
Plus, back to the writing...Jones has this habit of dislodging the object of a sentence and throwing at the end; a structure that, while grammatically correct, leaves you re-reading it, perhaps multiple times, to figure out what the hell he's saying. "He kicked with his good foot the rock along the path." (Not an actual example, it's one I made up, but structurally, it drives home my point.)
I like the parts with animals, where it becomes apparent that Jones is aiming for parallels between them and Charlie Rankin. The ending stirs your emotions a bit, too, while delivering some twists. But there were just far too many parts of this story that flew past my eyes, without me knowing, or caring, what the hell they were saying to me.
July 3, 2017
There's an interesting story here. The writing is strangely convoluted in spots. And I think the challenge of having a narrator who is slipping in and out of "reality" may have been a bit too ambitious. But there were things to enjoy here.
November 7, 2017
garbage, abused kid gets out of jail, has an "assignment" to carry out, case of mistaken identity messes things up, boring.
August 18, 2025
Well, this book was a total drag. A guy gets out of prison after a four-year stint, and has the worst 24 hours ever.
I'm glad it was short.
I'm glad it was short.
March 1, 2009
Kind of boring but read it though. Weird story for me.
September 30, 2013
The worst of his books I've read. A complete mess.
October 12, 2014
A novel told mostly from the muddled point of view of a person who seems to be somewhat disturbed mentally and with an unreliable memory. Could have been very good but ends up being muddled itself.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews