Synopsis
When Charlie Dugan, tough but fair-minded sheriff of Blackstone County in western North Carolina, receives a call to investigate a shooting one night, what he finds is a family whose car has been shot up in an apparent case of mistaken identity. What he also learns is that the driver of the vehicle from which the shots were fired may have been Doc Pemberton, wild but popular surgeon, county commissioner, and member of an old, politically powerful family. Pemberton was the man who, years before, procured Dugan his first job in the county and later urged him to run for sheriff. Since then, while using each other for their mutual political ends, the two have shared a wary respect.
Up for election for his third term as sheriff, the popular Dugan is an expected shoo-in. Because no one was hurt in the shooting, he is urged to drop the investigation. But the outrage, the demands for fair treatment and the courage of the family whose lives were threatened force Dugan to confront the class structure of the society in which he grew up, as well as his core beliefs about law and human dignity. Against his professional and political instincts, he pursues the investigation.
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About the Author
John R. Riggin graduated from Haverford College, served as a medic during the Vietnam War, attended graduate school at Vanderbilt University, worked as a small-town police officer, newspaper reporter and editor, and television producer. His war novel, Free Fire Zone, was published by W.W. Norton & Co. in 1984. He lives in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
Reviews
A former crime reporter and policeman, Riggan makes the New South circa 1972 seem positively noirish. Charlie Dugan, the larger-than-life sheriff of Blackstone County, North Carolina is running for re-election, with a powerful benefactor in local surgeon and county commissioner Dr. Martin "Doc" Pemberton. After local man Danny Carver identifies Doc as the driver of a car that forced him off a rain-slicked road, Charlie is in a quandary. He has worked to "create a more equitable justice" for the working poor like Danny Carver, but Doc's recklessness, sense of entitlement and belief in his immunity from justice force Charlie to question his values. As Dugan struggles with his conscience and the case, he interacts with a compelling Faulknerian cast that includes his stalwart, former wild child wife Drusilla; Elmore Willis, a neophyte lawyer at war with the memory of his sainted father; and Winthrop Reedy, a mobile-home salesman trying desperately to carve out a middle-class dream. Intriguing characters, timeless themes, and powerful prose make Riggan's second novel-following Free Fire Zone after more than 20 years-memorable.
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