
Oregon Hill
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $17.16
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kevin Kenerly
-
By:
-
Howard Owen
Willie Black is a newspaper reporter who has squandered a lot of things in his life - his liver, his lungs, a couple of former wives, and a floundering daughter can all attest to his abuse. He’s lucky to be employed, having managed to drink and smart-talk his way out of a nice, cushy job covering - and partying with - the politicians down at the capitol.
Now he’s back on the night cops' beat, right where he started when he came to work for the Richmond paper almost 30 years ago. The thing Willie’s always had going for him, though - all the way back to his hardscrabble days as a mixed-race kid on Oregon Hill, where white was the primary color and fighting was everyone’s favorite pastime - is grit. His mother, the drug-addled Peggy, gave him that if nothing else. He never backed down then, and he shows no signs of changing.
When a coed at the local university where Willie’s daughter is a perpetual student is murdered, her headless body found along the South Anna River, the hapless alleged killer is arrested within days. Everyone seems to think the case is closed. But Willie, against the orders and advice of his bosses at the paper, the police, and just about everyone else, doesn’t think the case is solved at all and embarks on a one-man crusade to do what he’s always done: Get the story.
On the way, Willie runs afoul of David Junior Shiflett, a nightmare from his youth who’s now a city cop, and awakens another dark force, one everyone thought disappeared long ago. And a score born in the parking lot of an Oregon Hill beer joint 40 years ago will finally be settled.
The truth is out there, and Willie Black’s going to dig it up - or die trying.
Howard Owen is a novelist and journalist living in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he and his wife, Karen, are editors for the Free Lance-Star. His novels include Littlejohn, Fat Lightning, Rock of Ages, and The Reckoning.
©2012 Howard Owen (P)2012 BlackstoneListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
Excellent read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great dialog. Good mystery.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Awful narrator!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good, old fashioned murder mystery
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What a surprise!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Vivid, memorable characters and details; compelling suspense
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
However, the narrator sounds more like North Carolina crossed with Hollywood (California, not the cemetery) than anyone who grew up in Oregon Hill. He also mispronounced our adjacent county Henrico. He said En-ree-co rather than Hen-RYE-co. With all the talent right here in Richmond, why wasn't someone used who would know what he was saying?
Clearly, what bothers me won't be a problem if you have not lived here, and even with my complaints, I have enjoyed this book, listening as close to straight through as possible - the true sign of an engaging story. The local details are perfect and I look forward to reading the next Willie Black book, Philadelphia Quarry.
I lived in Oregon Hill for 8 years
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
enjoy the details about Richmond
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.