Baker City 1948 - Softcover

George B. Wright

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0963265520 ISBN 13: 9780963265524

Publisher: C 3 Pubublications, 2005

Synopsis

Reading about the gruesome death of someone you knew was like accidentally seeing your mother naked; it was too private, but you couldn t take it back. In January 1948, nine-year-old Philip Wade and his little brother David, move to the small Eastern Oregon town of Baker City where their father, Kenneth Wade, is about to begin his career as a mortician. In the spring, Philip s father hires Jack O Brien, a local recluse, to help him put on a new roof on their house. Three weeks later, a local schoolteacher is found beaten to death and Jack O Brien is accused of her murder. Kenneth Wade is the only person who advocates on O Brien s behalf fully believing the man to be innocent. Philip is a spellbound spectator and narrator of his father s consuming struggle to save a man he barely knows. Conversely he witnesses his mother, Margaret Wade, demonstrate a quiet determination to keep the specter of violence from distorting the lives of her sons. Twisted into the father s fixation to wrest Jack O Brien from custody, is the relentless memory of a boyhood friend who, when wrongly accused of a killing, hung himself in his jail cell. This long ago horror is key to Kenneth Wade s motivation he is caught up in the terrible present because of a past that will not let him go.

About this title

About the Author:

George Byron Wright was born in The Dalles, Oregon. Along with his mother and brother, he migrated to three other small Oregon towns as his father pursued the life of a mortician. Living in Baker City, Tillamook and Roseburg endowed him with a lifelong fondness for small places. Following a lengthy career in the not-for-profit sector, during which time he wrote professionally, publishing books on management and board development, George returned to his love of fiction. In 1996 he began work on what has become his Oregon Trio , three novels set in the small towns of his youth. BAKER CITY 1948 was published in 2005, followed by TILLAMOOK 1952 in 2006, and now ROSEBURG 1959, completes this unique body of work. George lives with his wife and first reader, Betsy, in Portland, Oregon.

Review:

George Byron Wright is a native Oregonian. Born in The Dalles, he has lived in Baker City, Tillamook, Roseburg, Salem and now makes his home in Portland. Baker City 1948 is his first novel. It is somewhat autobiographical, as its protagonist, a young man, is the son of a mortician, as is Wright. But this compelling and sometimes exciting novel is the story of murder and the effort of the narrator s father to protect an accused man who may not be guilty. Written with assurance and a keen eye for incident and character, Baker City 1948 is a fine novel waiting to be discovered. A mystery, a novel of ideas and a sympathetic look at small town Oregon, Baker City 1948 has much to offer. --Dan Hayes, Book Editor, Salem Statesman-Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: C 3 Pubublications
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0963265520
• ISBN 13: 9780963265524
• Binding: Perfect Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 199