"Very satisfying!! In 1968 Walter Cravens, a big game hunter, is pursuing a mysterious bull elephant across the Serengeti plains. Accompanied by his Masai native guide, Cravens will stop at nothing in his pursuit of the elephant's ivory tusks. Even a dire warning from an old woman won't stop him from seeking the elephant's destination, Tembo Makaburi, the elephant graveyard. Jones captured me again with this story about a man's greed and arrogance. In just a few paragraphs he sketched out the setting and placed me there, baking under the African sun. It's very well written, and as always, has the perfect twist of an ending. If you're hesitating about picking up the book because you're an animal lover or don't like to read about hunting, you'll be ok with this read. It had me googling elephants and their habits, and I love stories that make me want to read more about the subject. Great read! A brutal indictment of big game hunting!" -- Amazon Reviewer.

“Stories that hit your heart, your sense of whimsy and your memories of different times - – writing about the south of the fifties in a nostalgic and loving way - with the touch of darkness.” In the first tale, Going Home, a small-time hoodlum, being led to the electric chair, remembers he has a few things he wants to do before he leaves this earth. In Boone, an eight-year-old tells the poignant story of an aging, crippled farmer who has a psychotic love for his wife. Two social misfits risk it all to love an unwanted child in For Love of Daniel. Cousins Billy and Roy, constantly spying on tenants of their grandmother’s rental houses, bite off more than they can chew in the haunting Gothic tale Annie. Alma Dawson’s life is turned upside down in The Agreement when she tries to raise money to pay for her daughter’s last year of college. In The Surrogate, a young woman conspires with her uncle to commit murder. A dying ten-year-old takes revenge on his tormentor in Serpentus Saragossii. In the suspenseful Tembo Makaburi, karma catches up with a greedy, arrogant big game hunter. In the final novella, The Angel Years, the Johnsons get an unexpected visitor while trying to protect a family secret. “I will add John Isaac Jones to my list of must-read southern authors!”

America’s most famous humorist lives again within the pages of John Isaac Jones’s new biographical novel! His hardscrabble childhood; influence of his older brother Orion; his wild days out West including his passionate fling with poet Ina Coolbrith; how he wooed and won his beloved Olivia and how, after rearing three children, neither would survive the death of their oldest daughter. It's all here!