You ever just been mad after reading a book? Like… angry at the author? Angry at the story? Angry at the fact that upon completion you realized you were using an e-reader instead of holding a physical copy, which has prevented you from slamming the covers together with a mighty flourish and a sharp sigh of contentment?
Well… A Violent Gospel was so damn good, that it made me mad. All kidding aside, Mark Westmoreland has delivered a captivating novella with a full novel’s worth of risk, regret, and rambunctiousness. A pulse quickening read, full of God, guns, and grifters.
The story follows Georgia boys Mack and Marshall Dooley. A pair of brothers that can’t seem to catch a break, but seem hell bent on keep’n on until they do. When an opportunity to cash in goes awry, the boys find themselves in the hole… literally. Things just seem to go from bad to worse from there and the goal isn’t to get out ahead, but simply to survive.
The characters in the story were highly relatable for me, which made reading it like listening to a favorite story being retold between friends at the local dive bar. The Dooleys are the kind of guys I grew up with. The kind of guys that once they set to doing something, you find yourself rooting for their success, while at the same time involuntarily cocking your head slightly, half a smirk across your lips, and whispering to whomever might hear… “this is going to end badly, but it’s going to be hilarious”.
I feel that Westmoreland did an amazing job of highlighting the differences between and overlap of Southern and Appalachian culture through his setting descriptions. There are unique places where the cultures blend and they are ripe with interest and intrigue. From those special locales, drive one direction down the main road and you will find yourself in the South real quick, head the other way… you might as well be in a different country.
Westmoreland tapped into that and spun one hell of a yarn that fans of Southern crime fiction are going to love. The differences and mixture of the two cultures in “Tugalo County'' is highly realistic and I applaud Westmoreland for his attention to detail with regards to it.
It is my deepest hope that this is the first of many works from this author and I will be first in line to snag a copy of whatever comes next. Though if I have any say, I’d prefer a full novel… My gluttony for these stories knows no bounds.
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Purchase A Violent Gospel
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Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen
