Flow Like A River - Overview

Historical fiction or murder mystery, let the reader decide. Flow Like a River by Mark Guillerman is a fast-moving novel set in the Texas hill country in the 1920s. Seventy-five years is a long time to hold a grudge whether this tale is based on legend or imagination, its plot is intriguing.

The little town of Gary, Texas, is historically portrayed. The reader can smell the dust, hear the chimes from the clock tower, and visualize the citizens on the boardwalks as flatbed trucks and model T Fords traverse the brick main street. Murder is not common, but citizens carry guns.

Sheriff Bud Thomas, retired from the Texas Rangers, has spent time on battlefields and chasing hardened criminals. Gary, Texas, was the idyllic setting he had dreamed of, and it was his responsibility to “make sure these two worlds didn’t collide.” But collide they did when “Prince” Laveaux, a New Orleans crime boss sets up a plan of revenge. An act of revenge for what?

The author lets the reader visualize the Prince in a perfectly tailored and neatly pressed black suit and finely polished black boots. He had taken care to button each shirt button making sure “there was not even the slightest hint of imperfection, not one loose thread or one small wrinkle”. He is in contrast to small-town citizens and farmers in overalls and work clothes.

The suspense begins to grip the town as Prince begins a reign of terror. Daryl, a drunk let out of jail, walks down a pre-dawn street not noticing an open law office door, or the open door to a café and that both had been ransacked. He did not suspect a shadowy figure stalking him. Prince’s men had spent the night spreading evil, breaking into business and ransacking interiors. They “did just enough to let people know that they had been violated” so citizens would doubt their safety, and to raise the tension in town.

Tension builds with murders and arson. Brutality against the town and specifically its Indian citizens, Running Wolf, Brenna and Billy continue to increase with the deaths of the innocent and members of the Prince’s gang. Arson shocks and terrorizes the town.

Billy and his best friend, Johnny, both twelve-year-olds are entrapped in the mayhem. They fear for their lives and for their family but show great courage as the gangsters’ evil vengeance increases.

This reader can visualize Flow Like a River as an action-packed movie with two athletic boys as the main characters, and well defined minor characters. The author is well versed in early Texas culture. The final chapters are especially riveting and vivid.