The Sheriff by Charles Fletcher

[Rob Neufeld]

The Sheriff by Charles Fletcher (Boone: Parkway Publishers trade
paperback, Aug. 2010, 182 pages)

brief review by Rob Neufeld

Cozy village novel, with guns

 

            Charles Fletcher uses his Haywood County roots to create, in his novel, “The Sheriff,” a fictional town in which Mayberry-type plot resolutions keep popping up.

            There’s no Aunt Bee and no Opie.  But there are a lot of amusing frames, as in a comic strip. 
The sheriff, Paul Harbin, shortly after inheriting the elected job from his favor-collecting father-in-law, hastens to the scene of a brawl.

            People are standing around doing nothing. 

The Ledbetter and Henson boys are brushing off their clothes.

            “I guess you won the right to be Ann’s boyfriend,” the Ledbetter boy says to the victor.  “I’ll not see her anymore.  Probably pick out one of the other girls.”  End of conflict.

            Not long afterward, Sheriff Harbin gets involved with Bob Boyd, a local farmer whose wife, Sally, is a shrew.  One day, he finds Bob digging a hole.  "What are you doing?" the sheriff asks.  "I'm burying Sally," Bob replies.

            At his murder trial, Bob answers the prosecutor’s question, “Did you kill your wife?” with the simple statement, “I shot her after she hit me with that frying pan.  I guess that's what killed her.”

            Bob’s a regular guy, like Mr. Deeds who went to Washington; and readers will find out just how innocent he is.

See Charles Fletcher's page on The Read.

[Robert Sorrells]

very thoughtful and spot on review