Covey Jencks – My Audiobook Review

Covey Jencks was my second audiobook and I’m glad it was. It was highly enjoyable to listen to especially after about the mid-point of the story. Shelton Williams crafted a deep mystery surrounding an old murder that intertwined a fast-paced story around a various cast of characters. As the story goes Covey, who left Odessa to become a lawyer, had been haunted by someone’s murder when he was a boy. The driving force of his move back to his hometown was to find out who actually committed the murder.

For the narration perspective, the reading of the front book material caught me off guard, as well as the story being read by a woman given the lead character was a male. After listening to the first few chapters that became a moot point. Kathy James carried the story well even given some mispronunciations. I found the reading speed of 1.25x to be best to listen to this book.

My initial thought was how can a small book of fewer than 165 pages have seventy-four chapters? I’ve always been chided by having small chapters in my own writing. As the audiobook progressed the small chapters made sense and soon I realized that each chapter stood on its own and lead into the next chapter.

What I picked up on during this reading was the many aspects of historical authenticity Shelton used to tell this story. From how some Texas towns had areas known as “The Flats”, to Underwood’s Restaurant, to how cars used to be washed, to the lone Mode O’Day store – this story could indeed have been nonfiction. Even though Shelton made mention for using the language he did, that factual language is what carried the story with even more legitimacy.  Also loved that the author incorporated one of my favorite movie characters, Keyser Söze from the movie “The Usual Suspects.” Towards the end of this story, the description reference became perfect for the character situation solving this murder.

Then there are the last few words of the book… making me wonder if indeed the story of Covey will continue!