It has been a
very long time since I reminded you of this excellent read by the late Milton
T. Burton. Back in December 2011, the world lost one heck of a writer and I
lost a good friend. I had known that Milton was doing poorly at the time, but I
thought he was getting better. Sandi had been recently diagnosed with cancer
and things did not look good. Milton kept telling me she would be fine. In
those dark early days, he calmed me down and helped me more than I can ever
say. Then Milton passed. Losing him was
very hard. I very much mis his phone calls and his gravelly voice full of wisdom
and vigor from his home in Tyler. His books live on and I strongly recommend
them.
Like the small
west Texas town that is never named, the man with no name is not what he appears
to be on the surface. He drives a beautiful car and appears in town with a
beautiful woman named Della. It isn’t the first time he has been in town as he
was here before in 1942. This time he is back to seek some revenge and no one
remembers him or suspects that he is anything other than what he appears to
be—a flamboyant gambler.
Revenge for what
isn’t clear nor is his plan. His plan does involve a weekly high stakes card
game that has been going on for decades at the Weilbach Hotel. It also isn’t
really clear which of several players is his target. It also isn’t clear on how
Della’s interest in a recent oil strike is going to help or for that matter
hurt his plan. Like his cards, he keeps his plans close to the vest and adjusts
for changes. He does have a plan, he is flexible and he just needs a little
help from friends like Chicken Little and Icepick Willie.
What follows in
this novel by Tyler, Texas resident Milton T. Burton is an intriguing and
deeply twisted tale of a great con. The author opens a portal back into a
different time and pulls the reader deeply into a Texas of the recent past.
Told through first person point of view he spins a rich and complex weave that
pulls the reader deep into his world where only slowly does the shape and scope
of the plan come tantalizingly clear like the mirage on a West Texas highway
during the heat of the summer before disappearing again. Heavily atmospheric
both in place and in style of writing, this is the kind of novel that starts
slowly, moves slowly and pulls the reader in so deep that when one looks up
from the book there is that splendid moment of disorientation between the past
that might have been and the present.
Kevin R. Tipple
© 2005, 2011, 2023
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