The Rock Hole

Reavis Z. Wortham

Jun 2011 · Blackstone Audio Inc. · Narrated by Traber Burns

About this audiobook

It’s a whole other country out there.

In 1964, when Ned Parker, farmer and part-time constable, is summoned to a cornfield one hot morning to examine the remains of a tortured bird dog, he discovers that there is a dark presence in their quiet community of Center Springs, Texas. Ned is usually confident handling moonshiners, drunks, and instances of domestic dispute. But when it comes to animal atrocities—which then turn to murder—the investigation spins beyond his abilities.

Ned combines forces with John Washington, a well-known black deputy sheriff from nearby Paris, Texas, to track down a disturbed individual who has become a threat to their small community.

As the case takes a dizzying series of twists and brings forth eccentric characters as well as several dead ends, Ned’s cranky friend, Judge O. C. Rains, is forced to contact the FBI. Then, sinister warnings that his family has been targeted by the killer lead Ned to the startling discovery that he knows the murderer very well. After the failed abduction of his precocious grandchildren, Top and Pepper, the old lawman becomes judge and jury to end what has become a murder spree in the Red River bottomlands. And it signals the end of an era in Center Springs.

In bald-headed, pot-bellied Ned Parker, Wortham has created an authentic American hero reminiscent of the best heroes and antiheroes in a story that blends country humor with heart-pounding suspense and ends with a stunning climax that may well shock our civilized sensibilities.

Ratings and reviews

I received an electronic copy of this novel at a discounted price through a Sourcebook Discount. Thank you, Sourcebook, Reavis Z. Wortham, and publisher Poisoned Pen Press for sharing your hard work with me. This has been on my want-to-read shelf after reading reviews of the first edition in about 2013, with another bump added in 2017. I will again approach my library to ask them to include this series in our western section. Reavis Z. Wortham writes a clear, unvarnished look at the southwest in 1964. This is a series I would like all my friends and family to read. We have come a long way... and have lost some things, as well. Featuring several small communities in Lamar County, Texas, laying against the Red River which marks the Texas border to Oklahoma, Wortham brings us a picture-perfect look at life in the southwestern reaches of the United States in 1964. There was growing anxiety about the Vietnam War, racial tension between whites, and blacks, and Native Americans, poverty becoming extreme poverty driven by the economy. Wortham has the nuances and sense of distrust between these many factions down pat. And all the little delicacies we now take for granted were unknown in the southwest. Fast food. Pop tops on beer. Soft drinks in cans. Clean water in taps and bottles. Television reception. Shoot, color television was rarely seen in those days. We lived much closer to nature back then. The available fruits and vegetables were seasonal and mostly locally grown. The hunters in most families provided meat for part of their protein needs. Deer and wild pigs in season and dove, quail, and rabbits most of the year. The larger family usually bought beef and pork on the hoof and had it butchered to suit their needs. The kids in The Rock Hole often hunt with Uncle Cody. Cody is a recent Vietnam Vet, Choctaw, and the black sheep of the family. Beloved by the kids, he is their conduit to the adults and law of the community. And everybody has a hound. Our boy Top has just gotten his first puppy, Hootie, rescued from a Brittany Spaniel breeder because its father was unknown. Ned Parker is the Constable of Precinct 3, Center Springs, Lamar County, Texas. He is also a cotton farmer. His wife, Miss Becky, is First American. Son James runs the hardware store in town and is the father of Pepper, a tomboy about nine and a pistol, who often stays with Ned and Becky, especially now that their newly orphaned grandson Top has come to live with them. He is ten and has spent enough summer times in the past at his grandparent's farm in Center Springs to know everyone and all the places he and Pepper like to wander and play. John Washington is the Black deputy sheriff, covering problems and crimes across the tracks. O. C. Rains is the local judge who carries a lot of weight in the policing of their community. Someone is torturing and skinning animals. Most are hung in view on the top strand of barbed wire fences. It must be someone in the community. And the frequency of these atrocities is increasing, the size of the victims growing. After they found the goat, the police fear for the community's children. Nobody is safe. And all these separate factions of peacekeepers and citizens will have to work together to find the perpetrator.

About the author

Reavis Z. Wortham, as a boy, hunted and fished the river bottoms near Chicota, Texas, the inspiration for his fictional Center Springs. He is the author of Doreen’s 24 HR Eat Gas Now Café and the acclaimed Red River mysteries. Novels in his Red River Mystery series have been named a Best Book of the Year by the Dallas Morning News, Strand Magazine, and Kirkus Reviews. He is the humor editor for and frequent contributor to Texas Fish and Game Magazine. His work has also appeared in American Cowboy, Texas Sporting Journal, and several other magazines. He is retired after spending thirty-five years as an educator.

Traber Burns worked for thirty-five years in regional theater, including the New York, Oregon, and Alabama Shakespeare festivals. He also spent five years in Los Angeles appearing in many television productions and commercials, including Lost, Close to Home, Without a Trace, Boston Legal, Grey’s Anatomy, Cold Case, Gilmore Girls, and others.