No Safe Refuge is a murder mystery set in rural Missouri during the Red Scare of 1919. Jim Buckner, a wounded war veteran is the local Deputy Sheriff and still new on the job. When he is approached for cooperation by a federal agent and his hit man in searching out local communist agitators, Buckner is skeptical. When the hit man is found murdered, Buckner resists the agent's orders to forget the murder and go after the reds. Buckner, with no experience in murder investigation, relies on his experience as a cavalryman on the Mexican Border, where he learned about hunting and tracking from the Apache. Along the way, Buckner enlists the aid of his family, the operator of a local house of prostitution, a drunken doctor, and the elegant owner of a black speakeasy. He also has to deal with local socialists and members of the I.W.W., some of whom try to kill him to stop his investigation. In the end, Buckner arrests the real killer, falls in love, and learns a great deal about himself and the town he lives in.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
As rarely happens, this familiar procedure [set-up for the novel] opens up a series of situations, characters, and social forces that justify calling the book an historical novel, as well as a police procedural. It is a brilliant performance in which every detail is apt, every conversation engrossing, every person individual and representative at the same time, and all contribute to forward movement.
The background of fact is sketched in with a sure hand; the references to Eugene Debs, Woodrow Wilson, the new-born F.B.I., . . . Gompers's labor union, Marx and the "Bolsheviki" come naturally into the stream of events. The political passions are evenly balanced, like the range of social classes that Buckner's inquiries bring before us. The result is that when he has to kill men with whom has has partly sympathized and treated with fairness, we can see tha we are not reading about good guys and bad, but about a genuine historical struggle, in which right and wrong are divided, not evenly but variously acording to the moment. -- Jacques Barzun, co-author of CATALOGUE OF CRIME, a critical bibliography of crime fiction
From the Inside Flap
In the summer of 1919, America was entangled in the Great Red Scare. Leaders from the federal to the local levels feared that domestic radicals would snatch away the fruits of victory just won in the "war to end war." Secret agents, both official and self-appointed, spread across the land, stirring up hornets' nests of vigilantism and trouble. On July 4th, all of this bursts like a summer storm, fierce and unexpected, on Deputy Sheriff Jim Buckner, of Corinth, Missouri.
In 1917, Buckner had returned to his native Highland County from service on the Western Front with a chestful of medals and a wound that ended his cavalry career. The job of deputy was given to him as a way of recognizing his bravery and supporting his once-prominent family, now on hard times. To everyone's surprise, he takes the work seriously. But he is not sure how to respond when three "Red-hunters" come to town looking for local revolutionaries. They press Buckner to assist them. Buckner, unconvinced that there is any danger of revolution, moves slowly until one of the men is found murdered.
Buckner's search for the killer teaches him much about his home and about police work. A novice at investigation, he relies on the advice of his boss, Sheriff Aubuchon, and on his own expertise as a scout and tracker with the US Cavalry on the Mexican Border. He also has to handle complex relationships with his family and with a beautiful war-widow that he meets along the way. He is both helped and hindered by a variety of people, including a pregnant hillbilly woman, an elegant Madame, and a shell-shocked doctor; he encounters a Marxist organizer and a black saloonkeeper, prostitutes, terrorists, and businessmen. Finally, after literally going through fire, he uncovers the link between the killer, the victim, and the local radicals. In a violent climax, he brings an end to the Red Scare in Corinth.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Read!,
By A Customer
This review is from: No Safe Refuge (Hardcover)
No Safe Refuge is a fascinating story of murder and intrigue set in a small rural Missouri locale during the "Red Scare" following World War I. Looking to solve the mysterious murder of a federal agent sent to uncover subversive groups in the area is our "hero," local sheriff Jim Buckner, who, at first, doubts his investigative abilities. Complicating his uneasiness is his growing awareness that deep-seated animosities and paranoia seem to preoccupy the lives of the town's most influential citizens. Slowly, as he begins to sharpen his investigative skills, Buckner realizes that his laid-back, close-knit community is really a facade hiding deep racial, class, ethnic and ideological divisions. Reminiscent of Jamie Harrison's sheriff Jules Clement in her series set in Blue Deer, Montana, Gibbs has blended mystery, history and local color to produce a novel that is both enjoyable and compelling.
4.0 out of 5 stars
History/Mystery--and it works,
By A Customer
This review is from: No Safe Refuge (Hardcover)
This is a 2-for-the-price-of-1 story: a murder mystery with a surprising but credible resolution plus an interesting depiction of a little-known time in American history. (Little-known to me, anyway.) Set in 1919, the focus is on the mystery and its sheriff hero, a recently wounded vet of World War I. But I found myself more and more interested in the larger tensions related to the murder--labor unrest and the 1st American, rather frantic Communist scare. The depictions of individual miners, rabble-rousers and fat cats are fascinating. There's even a (believable) feminist. It's an unusual book. I liked it.
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