Synopsis
For Nelson Gody, the summer of 1969, the summer he would turn sixteen, began as all his past summers had. Life on his family’s small farm outside Bells Ferry, Mississippi was safe and routine: chores, taking care of his little sister, working at a local gas station, swimming in the river with his best friend—his world was familiar and predictable. All that would change as young Nelson experiences his first love, wrestles with the secret his best friend has been hiding, and meets a mysterious stranger who appears one day on an exotic motorcycle called the Black Shadow. Capped by the devastating effects of hurricane Camille, the events of that summer ensure that life as Nelson knows it would never be the same again.
From the Author
Here is a review published by a reader on Goodreads. As an author, I truly cherish reviews like this, where a reader was as deeply affected in reading the story as I was in the writing of it.
A lot happened in the summer of 1969. Man first set foot on the moon. Hurricane Camille devastated large parts of the Gulf Coast states. Nelson Patrick Gody, of Bells Ferry, Mississippi, celebrated his 16th birthday and had things happen to him and around him that would change his life forever. The term "coming of age" is often overused -- but not here. This novel explores the bittersweet pleasure and agonizing distress of teen-age friendship and first love -- and the unfathomable menace of pure evil. I found the characterizations to be nothing short of astonishing. Until I read this story, I thought that only Charles Dickens had the seemingly magical gift of letting the reader, in a scant handful of words, seem actually to see the scene almost like a photograph, and of consistently presenting dialog so true to life that you'd think you were actually hearing the characters speak. Well, I now think that G. M. Frazier shares that talent, and very often to the same degree. Seldom have I encountered fictional characters who took on such vivid, three-dimensional life that, even without detailed descriptions, I felt I actually knew them. That's what happened in reading this book. Two or three times the exquisite exactness of Mr. Frazier's word choice actually left me breathless, with a "Yes! That's exactly right" reaction. The story itself is sometimes funny, often heart-rending, and just about impossible to put down. The descriptions of daily life are so bullseye perfect that time and again they took me back to my own childhood and teen years, now way over a half century past. I don't mind a bit saying that this book moved me to tears a dozen times. I hated like anything to leave some of the characters behind: I felt they were my friends by the book's end. I will definitely be reading A Death on the Wolf again. It is not apt to leave my mind -- ever. It's simply a wonder, and, I think, a great gift from a very talented writer. If you're disappointed by this book, I despair of knowing what one to suggest to you. I cannot recommend it highly enough. --Jon Rutherford
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