*Blink AND Pat Brown discussing this review and Powell and Sandusky cases tonight at 9PM on The Dana Pretzer Show click here to listen *
Perched atop a steep hill at the end of Makin Road, Billy Ray led a quiet existence with his furry friend and aptly-named Big Dog. He was simple like the syrup in sweet tea you could imagine him drinking on his shabby back porch every evening come sundown.
With no proper schooling or family to speak of since his MommaAunt died and left him his house in the woods, he could not read , worked odd jobs and street sweeping for weekly groceries and beer.
Billy Ray was the John Coffey of Whitfield Glen. Like the drink, ‘cept not spelled the same, not spelt the same at all.
That all changed when the girl with the red suitcase crossed his path.
Can I Go With You, Billy Ray?
Charlene was the first woman Billy Ray had ever made love to. She made fluffy biscuits and Billy Ray realized what lonely was like when they was apart even for a few hours for his work or a trip into town for supplies. He knew he would need to put some money into that ole beater pick up now.
It did not go fast enough up that hill for him anymore; Charlene was waiting on him.
When Charlene hung garlic from the porch to keep the vampires away, he should have left it right up there like she set it in the first place. He thought it was silly. Silly is as silly does I reckon, or more like simple.
Simple like the sugar the old guy with the same skin color as Charlene came to borrow the day everything went sideways and Billy Ray got a visit from Sheriff Hathaway.
The story of Billy Ray and Charlene, whose last name he never asked, begins like a lazy afternoon sitting next to the soft babbles of a field creek in bare feet.
As the layers of Charlene’s past begin to peel like that ominous hanging garlic, Pat Brown’s ONLY THE TRUTH has us looking up at the sky for a funnel cloud only to see that as the reader, we are already in its eye.
In Pat Brown’s freshman fiction ekindle effort, the journey of Billy Ray, Charlene and the lives one gives as well as takes away are not the simple outcomes of good versus evil.
Brown does a masterful job engaging the reader while weaving the psychological tapestry of love, loss, brutality and shame that challenges us to think we know what it will look like when completed, only to learn our lenses may need a cleaning.
Many times, our ability to see ONLY THE TRUTH is hampered by our lack of ability to accept what that might reveal about someone we love, as well as ourselves.
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Only The Truth eKindle Book is offered by Amazon for under $3, however, you do need a Kindle to read it. You can download the Kindle reader cloud for your PC or download the Kindle reader app for your smartphone. It is a quick and riveting read, told in Billy Ray vernacular. 4.5 out of 5 winks from Blink.
69 year old Patrick Sullivan retired from law enforcement with the prestigious honor of Sheriff Of The Year.
In an undercover drug sting 5 months ago, Sheriff Sullivan’s real life Breaking Bad episode went from bad to worse when he was arrested for trading methamphetamine for sex with a male prostitute.
Sullivan threw the “ice” on the bed, and undressed in a manner that investigators believed was not his first time.
Courtesy Rome News
Retired in 2002 from Arapahoe County, In 2001 Sullivan was named Sheriff Of The Year by the National Sheriffs Association.
He served on former President Bill Clinton’s National Commission on Crime Prevention and Control in 1995.
The plea deal shocked locals following the case, as shortly after Sullivan posted bond, he referred to himself as having “Armadillo Skin” and being tough until the truth comes out.
* A tweaker resembling a woman waiting outside in the parking lot who frequently delivered hamburgers to the hourly rate motel guests, overheard Sullivan say that he was positive that the ice rock fell out of his pants he just picked up from the laundry and that his relative is a Senator. As he was being arrested she recalls him chanting something about a headed turtle in the desert to all if they dare lock him up .*
Shortly after those comments, a task force investigating Sullivan grew from 11 to 18, and included the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Deputy Attorney General Michael Dougherty called Sullivan a disgrace to the badge:
“..The defense painted this individual as helping individuals. I respectfully differ. He was using meth to obtain sex from individuals and he used he used his authority and former prestige as a sheriff…”
Sullivan pled guilty to one count of felony drug possession and two counts of misdemeanor solicitation of a prostitute.
He was sentenced to 38 days, with a credit for the 8 days served prior to posting bond, and 2 years probation.
Sullivan was remanded to the Sullivan Correctional Facility, named after him, yesterday.
The current Arapahoe Sheriff Grayson Robinson has asked the county commission to rename the jail.
*This paragraph only is parody for Breaking Bad fans, and did not actually occur. Like it matters in this one.*