Customer Reviews

The Mulligans of Mt. Jefferson: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read a lot in my profession. I read so much that I really don't think about the process very much. But this book by Don Reid--The Mulligans of Mt. Jefferson--created a desire in me to examine this author's style of writing as closely as I could. There is just so much available to read in our world today that when one comes across a book like this, it is special. Reid writes with a comfortable approach that had me feeling as though I had grown up with his characters. Honestly, I don't know when I have simply enjoyed a story more. Last night as I was about to find out who shot one of the main characters, I remarked to my wife, "I am actually sad that I'm about to finish this book!"

So come on Mr. Reid...write some more! And let me say that this one is worth five BIG stars!!!

I have read three of Don Reid's books so far and I have to say they are all very good. I like his classy writing style. Nothing here that I would be ashamed of passing down for my young teen grandkids to read, seems to be a lesson in all of them. Very impressed!

Reid's book is just a good fun read that flows beautifully. It's one of those novels that you hate to see end...the best I've read since John Grisham's "A Painted House". It's a down-to-earth story that demonstrates a lost art: old-fashioned story telling without supernatural junk or bad language. If you want a fun, feel-good book you'll love "The Mulligans".

I was so happy when I received this book from Wynn-Wynn Media that I could not wait to start reading it so I did. Don Reid and his group of singers "The Statler Brothers" was one of my very favorite group and I find his writing is as good as his singing.

This story to me sounded so much like the guys that started the singing group that as I read I could just see each one as that boy. The little town Mt. Jefferson, Virginia was where everyone knew each other and Cal, Harlan and Buddy grew up as buddies and stayed that way even after they were married and had families. One was a policeman, one a pastor, and one ran a jewelry store.

They were always getting into something and they always stood up for each other. A man that ran a local restaurant everyone called Uncle Vic liked the boys and he started to call them "The Mulligans".

This is such a good story to me that you should pick up a copy and read for yourselves. I was a teenager in the 1950s just as Don Reid was so it all came home to me. I really loved the book and thanks so much to Jeane Wynn of Wynn-Wynn Media, LLC for sending me this copy and I really enjoyed reviewing it.

In the 1930s the fifth graders Cal Vaxter and Harlan Stone were BFFs who were losing a fight to sixth graders. Buddy Briggs intervened. They became the Three Musketeers.

By 1959, Cal the Methodist Preacher was separated from his beloved Elle and their children; Harlan, married to Darcy with twin teenagers, ran the family store Stone Jewelers; Buddy the police lieutenant is married to Amanda with their teenage daughter married and pregnant. A masked intruder invades Harlan's home and shoots the owner in front of Darcy while the twins are away at Boy Scouts Camp. Harlan is rushed to Mt. Jefferson while Buddy investigates the shooting and Cal tries to provide comfort to his severely wounded friend and his wife.

Returning to Mt. Jefferson (see O Little Town), Don Reid provides an insightful look at family and friendship inside of an engaging historical police procedural. The story line is leisurely paced to enable the readers to obtain a deep look at the three BFFs in 1959 small-town Virginia. The Mulligans (as Mr. Vic calls the lead trio) are sort of Venn diagrams with various people inside the mostly overlapping circles. With an intriguing twisting climax, fans will enjoy a glimpse back in time in which Mr. Reid showcases friendship without social media while Buddy works the case and Cal the soul.

Harriet Klausner

Cal, Harlan, and Buddy grow up together in a small Virginia town in the years before the second World War. United by age, proximity, and temperament, they get into and out of all the trouble that boys manage to find. They even earn a nickname from a local restaurateur who gives the boys their first jobs and plenty of friendly advice. Uncle Vic calls them the Mulligans, because they always seem to find a way through a thicket of trouble family problems, girls, college, war to success. Cal and Harlan and Buddy have been blessed with second chances. Now it's 1959, and police lieutenant Buddy receives an early-morning phone call: his friend Harlan, a store owner, has been shot in a break-in. Cal, now a preacher, meets Buddy at the hospital, and together, as professionals and as friends, they begin to unravel what might have happened to Harlan.

I received The Mulligans of Mt. Jefferson by Don Reed compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest review and have to say it's quite unique from other books I've read. The author takes the reader into each of the characters lives both past and present day so you gain an insight unlike most novels. For example the reader first is introduced to the present day situation where Harlan has been shot and how the three interact in dealing with the circumstance, Harlan the victim, Buddy works for the police department and Cal is the local pastor.

Beginning with Harlan, the book toggles back and forth in each subsequent chapter going back into Harlan's past when he was a boy growing up and then flashing forward to present day, then back to the past again, until we learn all about Harlan's upbringing. Then the next segment of the book walks us through Cal's life and finishes up with Buddy so you can see how they have all arrived at where the book begins and just how Harlan has wound up in the hospital now shot. While it wasn't a favorite for me, due to all the changes in past and present between character, I'm sure other readers will enjoy this book. For me this one rated a 3 out of 5 stars.