An Hour to Kill by Dale Hudson
True crime is my genre; about the ONLY thing I read.
And in many years of reading this genre, I have read many, many books whose setting was in the South, even the deep south Georgia, but I have NEVER run across authors who did such an excellent job (said tongue in cheek)of making the “characters” out to be such hillbillies.
Living in a small, southern town myself, I can say this: sure, we have some odd sayings and our own dialect; but, come on, do you have to play on it? Even though I speak “the language” of these people, I still had a very difficult time reading it.
And An Hour to Kill has to be the only true crime book I’ve read to date that included photos, but not any clear photos of the victim or the accused.
Readers are provided with a grainy photo atop her headstone, taken at a distance of the victim and one side view photo taken of the accused. But, hey, there is a clear photo of Mickey Spillane and his wife, Jane, for your enjoyment! Go figure!
Throw in that this book plays on the fact that Crystal Faye Todd was murdered by her best friend Ken Register, but we’re not given much background information on neither them nor their families; only that they had all been life long friends.
By the way - how is that Ken Register was her best friend, but she had refused to date him and told her mother it was because he wanted sex all the time and smelled badly?
Doesn’t really sound like best friend material but, amazingly, Bonnie Faye Todd considers him as someone she can lean on and trust.
However, if a reader can wade through all that mess, there is a good argument here for the conviction.
It was based mainly on past actions of the defendant and primitive use of DNA.
Quite frankly, the jury, in my opinion, didn’t have enough evidence to convict but read it and form your own opinion.
Just plan on having Jethro’s voice in your head while you do!
