The Deadline: A Mystery (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... masterful storytelling..." -- The Denver Post, December 12, 1999

"The Deadline is a masterfully woven mystery, filled with colorful characters." -- PJ Nunn, The Charlotte Austin Review, June 25, 2000

Product Description

In 1948, Neeley Gilmartin pleads guilty for the gruesome death of seven-year-old Aimee Little Spotted Horse, throwing her still living body off a bridge into Black Thunder River.

In 1996, Jefferson Morgan fulfills a life-long dream of owning his own newspaper, by buying out The Bullet from his long time mentor, Old Bell Cockins. He brings his wife to Winchester, Wyoming; visits with his childhood friend, Trey Kerrigan, now the sheriff of the town; and secures a line of credit with the local bank to get his paper over the bad times.

And then the bad times hit: Neeley Gilmartin is back in town, and wants Morgan to tell his story in The Bullet: Neeley Gilmartin claims he did not kill the little girl and wants Morgan to prove it. Morgan only has a few days to do it, too. Neeley Gilmartin is dying -- his time can be counted in days.

Under the heaviest deadline of his life, and amid threats from Kerrigan, and the bank's officers, and from the paper's advertisers, Morgan must struggle with his own conscience to tell a story no matter the consequences, dig deep into the town's past, and unveil a killer who's managed to remain unmasked for almost 50 years.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: Write Way Publishing (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885173733
• ISBN-13: 978-1885173737
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,694,106 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking for cookie-cutter mysteries? Skip this deep tale, November 21, 2000

By	"kaye-dee" (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews

Once in a while, a book comes along to break the usual mold. The Deadline is one of those books to me. This story is very touching, the characters are three-dimensional and real, the mystery is almost ordinary but the reader invests a lot of emotion in it. I can see why Poisoned Pen gave this book such high honors as one of the best of 1999. It simply tells a good story that made me cry when it ended, and I don't do that much.

I have read Ron Franscell's first novel, Angel Fire, too. It is quite different since it is not a mystery, but it conveys some of the same themes: the "deceptive simplicity" of a small town, how sadness is sometimes necessary on the way to happiness, and the beauty of vivid characters. I have no difficulty recommending these books to true readers who want more than formula stories. I eagerly await Mr. Franscell's next book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine Writing sets it Apart, July 17, 2001

By	Kenneth Blum (Orrville, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jefferson Morgan, a crime reporter at the Chicago Tribune, decides to fulfill a lifelong dream by buying his hometown weekly newspaper, The Bullet of Winchester, Wyoming.

So he takes out a huge loan, and he and his wife pack their bags and head west.

After he assumes control of the paper, there are the usual problems that any fledgling publisher has to face – apathetic young reporters, missed deadlines, a grouchy production manager and picky, controlling advertisers.

On top of that, there’s a cash flow problem. There isn’t much of it, and he has a [six thousand dollar] monthly payment coming due at the local bank.

And then things get really complicated.

An elderly, dying man shows up at The Bullet’s office, and asks Jefferson Morgan to write his story.

Fifty years ago, the man pleaded guilty to the brutal murder of a seven-year-old girl. Now, just released from prison, he claims he didn’t do it. And he wants the new editor/publisher to prove that he didn’t do it.

At first, Morgan is more than a little skeptical. But he feels obligated to check it out. And there isn’t much time because the cancer-ridden old man may only have a few days to live.

What Morgan uncovers creates tremors in the community that threaten the existence of his newspaper.

Does he risk all by digging through a small town’s dark closets and exposing a killer who has been undetected for over 50 years? Or does he keep the information to himself to save his newspaper?

"THE DEADLINE " is what you would expect from the prose of the talented Ron Franscell, who is among the finest fiction writers to evolve from the newsroom of a community newspaper in this decade.

Franscell has switched genres on us, but he’s done it in style, more specifically his unique style of painting-in-words a depth of emotion that morphs with the setting and characters. And no writer has done or does a better job of depicting the aura of working at a hometown newspaper.

But, back to the about-face in genres. Franscell’s first book "Angel Fire," released in 1998, is a rich, marvelous work of literary fiction that was named #74 of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Top 100 Western Fiction Books of the 20th Century. The story of two brothers from a small town in Wyoming who are raised by a widowed newspaper publisher is close to a masterpiece.

"THE DEADLINE" is no "Angel Fire." Franscell decided to follow a different muse.

His premise and structure is typical for a suspense novel – get a man up a tree, throw rocks at him, get him back down. Franscell throws a quarry of rocks at his protagonist, Morgan, as the man struggles with his conscience and convictions. And there are the usual plot twists, turns and surprises that keep the reader flipping pages.

What separates Franscell from the rest of a very large pack of mystery writers is the sheer quality of his writing. There are many mystery writers who get the man up the tree and keep us turning pages to see if he’ll ever get back down.

But when you add writing that flows smooth and runs deep, like a proud old river, you have something different, a mystery novel that transcends and separates itself from all the others.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE DEALINE, Truly For the Mystery Lover!, September 15, 2000

By	calliepso (Olympia, WA) - See all my reviews

From the very beginning of Ron Franscell's, THE DEADLINE, you are catapulted into a vivid tale of one man's desperate attempt to clear his name, from an unspeakable crime, and another's search for the truth.

To do this, Neeley Gilmartin inlists the help of Jefferson Morgan, newspaper owner in a rural town of the Wyoming countryside. Setting in motion the biggest challenge of Morgan's career. Ron Franscell's skillfully crafts an array of colorful characters to carry you along on this fascinating hunt for answers that must come before a crucial deadline.

I highly recommend THE DEALINE for the experience it brings to the lover of a well-plotted mystery.