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Everett has a way of writing characters that just draws me in, even if the plot confuses me. I wish I could identify what it is he does because it's really effective. I really enjoyed this one, although when I got to the third story, I wondered if I'd been reading the whole thing wrong. In the first and third stories, Ogden had been in the army, and in the second, he'd been in the Marines; I assumed this was an oversight, but now I'm not sure.

After a long day helping set up the high school gym for the Grad Night party, having an awesome time subbing a prealgebra class, and playing tennis with my spouse, I have a precious few minutes to read the tagged under a lovely sky before my kid is done with orchestra rehearsal.

What a cool book! It is, in essence, three separate stories about a deputy sheriff in small town New Mexico, named ‘Ogden‘. He‘s an interesting character, understated and sarcastic. Yet, the reader is left with some very complicated feelings about Ogden by the end. As always, it‘s difficult to feel one way when reading an Everett.

The title of this book couldn‘t have been better. This is one of Percival Everett‘s earlier novels and it reads like a literary thriller. Protagonist Ogden Walker is deputy sheriff in a small town, solving crimes and driving around. I knew there had to be more to it - this is Everett after all. So I started making assumptions.
What a clever book. Read it!

I understand this one gets mixed reviews, so I feel fortunate to have been familiar with Everett before picking it up: this is not a murder mystery. It looks like a murder mystery, and for the first 80% it *feels* like a murder mystery, but it‘s a philosophical examination of human nature and - yes - assumptions.

The kind of book where after turning the last page, you instantly want to flip back to page 1 and start again.

It‘s the little details that make Percival Everett such a joy to read

This book has me thinking. Even when Everett‘s endings makes me angry, I love his writing. It‘s a mystery I‘ll reread.

Ogden Walker is a Black sheriff‘s deputy in a rural New Mexico county. These three connected novellas feature his investigation into three murders. Like in all the Everett books I‘ve read, things are not as simple as the seem. Walker‘s investigations take him to rough neighborhoods in Denver and meth-fueled hippie communes.

This was solid pick for me -- until the last few paragraphs. Everett ended this collection of novellas about Detective Ogden Walker by having him dld something so completely out of sync with the character he developed that it was really jarring.