Son of a Preacher Man

Title: Son of a Preacher Man
Author: Jamie Craig
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novella (26k words)
Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

A Guest Review by Aunt Lynn

THE BLURB

Dario Russo grew up on the road. The son of itinerant workers in California, he had no friends, no stability, and no concept of a normal life. Until the age of sixteen, when he meets Reverend Waters’ son, Billy Ray. The relationship is short lived, but it haunts Dario for the next thirty years. At the age of forty-six, he has the opportunity to return to Crows Landing, California, and the chance to track down the man who had meant so much to him.

But what he finds in Crows Landing is the last thing he expects. So wrapped up in his hopes for a second chance, he almost misses the very real interest from a local, Shawn Pederson. Shawn might not have the past working in his favor, but he’s willing to offer the future Dario always wanted.

THE REVIEW

Son of a Preacher Man is the new offering by the versatile and talented writing team of Jamie Craig, one (or two, actually) of my favorite authors. I liked this gentle, quiet tale of unexpected discovery in the midst of trying to find the past. I like stories with both older protags and trying to recapture the past, so this was a bonus for me on both fronts.

Dario returns to the small California town of Crows Landing to take on a temporary job as a glazier in a new housing development at the edge of town. Dario had lived in the dusty produce-grower for six months thirty years before as one of the sons of migrant workers, and while there, became friends and lovers with the son of the town’s minister, Billy Ray. Upon leaving, Dario attempted to live a “normal” life with various women over the course of the next three decades, though he never forgot Billy Ray or that side of himself. When he learns of the glazier job, he jumps at the chance, leaving his current relationship in hopes of finding the part of his past that he can’t seem to leave behind. When he arrives in Crows Landing, however, he doesn’t find what he is looking for, or rather finds something altogether different and unexpected when local Shawn expresses interest and more in Dario.

I liked both protags, who we believable and sympathetic. Dario is “older” at 46, a man confused and lost in many ways, who has spent the last thirty years running in some form or another. Although he longs for normalcy and stability after a childhood of constant moving around because of his parents’ jobs as itinerant produce workers, in many ways he continues the tradition by making his first reaction to leave when he gets uncomfortable, his work as a sub-contractor lending the opportunity to just pick up and go as necessary. Even when faced with Shawn, a man who he meets his first day back to Crows Landing, his first reaction is to run when he gets scared and suffers the guilt he had always felt after his time blissful time with Billy Ray. He spends much of the story constantly fighting and confusing memories and thoughts about Billy Ray while with Shawn, something he needs to overcome if he wants to find peace. He also needs to reconcile the new situation he is in with a possible relationship of sorts with Shawn, something he never thought he’d find himself: some semblance of normalcy.

“I’ve just never been in this situation before in my life. Alone with a guy I really like, in a house with a real bed, and no other relationship holding me back. Nobody around to make me feel guilty. No sense that it was anything except the right choice.”

As a result, there is a lot of growth on his part during the tale.

For Shawn, a mid-thirties, Crows Landing native who was just a kid when Dario was in town last, he is used to Dario’s kind: runners. He also longs for a normal, stable life and has the makings of it with a permanent home and job, but wants the relationship he can never find with a man who will stay. Dario’s leaving is par for the course and as a cautious realist he sadly understands, but doesn’t like it much.

There aren’t that many secondary cast, with Ruby, Dario’s most recent fiancé, being the most prominent. She threatened to be another cookie-cutter horrible female character, but offered some good advice when Dario needed it.

The town of Crows Landing is a secondary character in itself, with the description of its sheer desolation being in the forefront at all times: the dustiness, the barrenness, the quiet, the lonely population.

OVERALL

Another good offering by Jamie Craig, Son of a Preacher Man would be of interest to readers of the genre.