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Buy it direct from Cheyenne Publishing or from our Amazon.com store - A Hundred Little Lies  

Maybe it’s just my exposure to the genre, but whenever I think “western,” I automatically assume a gunfighter or two will show up along with some heathen Native Americans and, of course, some campfire homosex. But I love having my expectations confounded so the small, yet complex, story in Jon Wilson’s A Hundred Little Lies truly engaged me.

Jack Tulle, general store owner and respected city council member of Bodey, Colorado has a wonderful relationship with his eight year old daughter, Abigail, and friends all over town. But when a poker tournament comes to Bodey, with it comes Tom Jude—Jack’s ex-lover—to threaten Tulle’s way of life.

Most impressive about this book is its portrayal of relationships. Rich with detail and expression, Jack’s relationship with Abigail—a willful girl savvy beyond her years—is beautifully done. Her grunts, squeals, evil-eye squints and moods are immediately understood but never belabored, and their give-and-take dialogue is anything but stickily sentimental. It has an edge as well as an underlying respect on both their parts.

Jack’s relationship with Tom Jude, however, has a different cast. It’s all smoke, veils and onion layers where what’s said isn’t necessarily what’s meant. If not for Abigail’s mother, Fiona, Jack and Tom would never have parted company. That doesn’t mean Tom wants to start up a new life with Jack—or does he? A dalliance with a past lover or the beginning of a new chapter? Tom’s intent isn’t clear until the final chapter. And even then, a sequel is possible.

However interesting, the plot takes a backseat to the finely drawn characters. Jack Tulle is complicated and three-dimensional. A man of some education with a rough and tumble past behind him, as is his former career as a circus performer, he now lives and works in a small town, satisfied to raise his daughter. Full of common sense, homespun wisdom and a (mostly) even-temperment, Jack is the perfect prairie papa.

But even Wilson’s minor characters have complexities—notably Tom Jude, who may or may not be a rouge, shifty bank president Emmerson Knowles and town marshall Ethan Evans, Tulle’s best friend. And Wilson’s characters are as well-drawn as his portrait of small town Colorado life during that time period. The sense of place and time here is dead on. You can almost smell the dusty cowshit—and that’s not a bad thing.

Jon Wilson’s A Hundred Little Lies is a multi-faceted gem of a read, with plenty of depth as well as sparkle. 

Reviewed by Jerry Wheeler