The Contrary Blues - Hardcover

Billheimer, John W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312185650 ISBN 13: 9780312185657

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1998

Synopsis

A first novel introduces Federal Department of Transportation inspector Owen Allison, who travels to a small mining town intent on stopping a bus fare scam, but who finds more than he bargained for when a local gadfly is murdered.

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Reviews

Billheimer's impressive debut tells a funny, sometimes touching story about governmental bumbling and Appalachian poverty and resourcefulness. National Department of Transportation investigator Owen Allison, a West Virginia native, is assigned the unwelcome task of completing an audit begun by a colleague who met with a fatal "accident" in the little town of Contrary, W.Va. Contrary, Owen quickly discovers, has been the recipient of unintentional governmental largess: an extra zero on a grant application turned Contrary's initial request for two buses into a request for 20. The mistakenly awarded grant, with continuing funding for support, has turned Contrary into a contented town?except for Hatfield McCoy, a disabled citizen who keeps firing off disgruntled letters about Contrary's bus service. Contrary's attempts to retain the funds are guided by its folksy mayor, Purvis Jenkins, and his sister, town belle Mary Beth. Well-developed subplots include Mary Beth's coal-mining ex-husband's battle with alcoholism and black-lung disease, Owen's struggle with his political boss and a sheriff with a yen for Mary Beth and nasty plans for Owen. Owen's future as a sleuth is uncertain at story's end, but Billheimer's writing prospects seem assured.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ever since a misplaced decimal point led the Department of Transportation to send Contrary, West Virginia, funding for twenty city buses instead of two--and to continue providing operating subsidies at that inflated level for four years--things have been looking up in the little coal town. Purvis Atkins, Contrary's mayor, has been diverting the windfall to a city health clinic, Meals on Wheels, and so many other worthy civic enterprises that when the scandal eventually comes out, a Wall Street Journal editorial comes down on Contrary's side. But there's a downside to the whole arrangement, too (even if you don't count massive taxpayer fraud): the suspiciously timely death of Transportation auditor Dwight Armitrage, followed by the intrigue that engulfs his straight-arrow successor Owen Allison, who finds himself drawn first into the bed of the bus system's comptroller, Mary Beth Hobbs, who just happens to be the mayor's sister; then into a coverup of the scam; and finally into a case of murder when a local crank who tries to divert the gravy train in his own direction gets himself killed by one of his hundred-plus enemies, and the cops come looking for Owen--and the only person who'll stand up for him is his highly inconvenient ex-wife. Billheimer seasons his debut with quiet humor, warmly appealing characters, and enough inventive plot twists to make a Contrarian out of straighter arrows than Owen. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312185650
• ISBN 13: 9780312185657
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 244