A Rock and a Hard Place

Although I don't regularly read books like this one, it was well worth the change of scenery. Based in modern times, this books opens with the brutal murder of a town local, Ramona Walker. When the main character, Bear, finds out his brother is a suspect, he is set between a rock and a hard place. He is the detective in charge of the case and has to face sending his brother to the electric chair or to set him free. The novel is intriguing and while it has it's dull moments, it is continously suspenseful and alluring. For a reader who is open to new kinds of reading, this is definetely worth the time.

I really have nothing to add to the previous three glowing comments about this mystery novel. I agree with their statements. They have really said it all. However, I'm really pleased to know that Wimberley has a sequal. I hope that he settles the question in the new novel of what happened to his nieces (Corrie's and Delton's daughters). As the story ended in Rock and a Hard Place, his characters Laura Anne & Barrett Raines, were sitting on Fort Walton Beach with their twin sons after the death of Barrett's brother Delton and sister-in-law Corrie, but no mention is made of the orphaned children.

"A Rock And A Hard Place" is an entertaining book that evokes a place that many of us have never seen, but -after reading the novel--understand. The protagonist, Barret Raines, and his wife, Laura Anne, have worked hard to carve a comfortable middle-class life in the town where they hope to live out their lives. The murder of Barrett's friend and patron threatens to destroy their carefully-constructed dream, especially when his older brother is accused of the crime. Does Barrett clear the family name? How does he find the truth? The book is engrossing. The narrative entices the reader from the first chapter, adding background and exposition as the book unfolds. The author, although not a police officer, seems comfortable with police procedure and Southern politics. He has a "good-ole-boy" approach to the supporting characters, giving the reader enough detail to imagine them but not so much that they intrude on the narrative. This is a good story, written by someone who has a grasp of narrative and pacing. I look forward to reading the next story.

With the likes of Carl Hiassen, James Hall, Laurence Shames, and a passel of others shooting it out regularly in the same mosquito-clogged marshes and sunny beaches once ruled by John D. MacDonald and Charles Willeford, the Florida crime fiction field has seemed somewhat dangerously overfished in recent years. Apparently, however, Austin screenwriter Darryl Wimberley (The Radicals, Love Thy Father) wasn't too worried about all that when he penned his debut mystery novel, A Rock and a Hard Place, which takes place in the realistically redneck but fictional little town of Deacon Beach, located on the Gulf Coast of the Sunshine State. An expert storyteller with a voice that bears the grit of experience and confidence, Wimberly creates a sense of ambivalence and danger in the interplay of sun and water and decaying enterprises commonly found at land's end.Before reading this book, I wondered whether Wimberley's screenwriting box of tricks would manifest themselves in his novel. In the end, I have to say that Wimberley's practiced hand at the art of visual storytelling translates nicely to the printed page. The reader's attention glides from one viewpoint to another with the ease of a deftly handled Steadicam, with spicy tough-guy dialogue and plenty of tips of the fedora to all the right classic movies. Move over, Florida tough-guy writers, I think I see a hit series coming on strong. -Jesse Sublett, The Austin Chronicle

Deacon Beach is a very small hamlet in Northwest Florida where time has stood still, leaving race relations stuck in the 1950's. Barrett Raines grew up in town, knowing its prejudices including the lynch mob mentality. Barrett left town accepting a law enforcement job elsewhere in the state. He returns home applying for a job on the police force. The all-Caucasian selecting committee was going to reject his application until Ramona, owner of a popular restaurant, forced them to hire Barrett. Seven years later, Barrett is now a detective. His family resides in a predominantly white neighborhood and his wife teaches in the nearby school. He is fully accepted by his peers until someone brutally murders Ramona and the evidence points to Barrett's older brother Delton. Though Delton has strayed onto the wrong side of the law before, Barrett believes his sibling's cries of innocence. As Barrett investigates the murder, the rest of the force close ranks against him and his formerly friendly neighbors turn a cold shoulder towards him and his family. A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE is an engrossing police procedural that chillingly captures the dilemma faced by an honorable person caught between his job and his blood in a town without pity. Besides the pre-integration twist that defines relationships, Darryl Wimberly successfully escorts his audience into the ugly abyss confronting police officials as they work vicious crimes. Barrett is a great individual, who deserves return engagements in future novels set in this segregated town.Harriet Klausner