Siblings plan to bring down the 'Devil' in this new murder mystery

“The Devil’s Smokehouse” by Justin Jones (River Grove Books, 272 pages, in stores)

Their lives are defined by terror, and middle-schoolers Jenkins and Jill know the only path to safety must be of their own devising. This quandary drives the action in “The Devil’s Smokehouse” by Oklahoma writer Justin Jones. This is Jones’s third publication and his best. The book was released in October to favorable reviews and a stint on the Amazon Best Seller list. Jones draws on an impoverished childhood in rural Oklahoma and his years as director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to inform this murder mystery blended with a coming-of-age narrative.

The story centers on Jenkins and his older sister as they conspire to survive the regular beatings of their alcoholic and drug-addicted father, first by escaping to their grandfather’s nearby farmhouse and later by planning to eliminate their tormenter once and for all. Their years-long plot begins when the youngsters are 10 or 12 years old and continues past high school graduation.

The devil, as they label their father, proves to be a tough old bird to deal with. Along the way, bodies pile up, some of their doing and some whose deaths arise from unexplainable causes. Jenkins and Jill find themselves embroiled in the seamy underside of country life, where drugs and dirty money flow freely. Poor people on the lower rungs of society pay the highest price.

The story opens in the death chamber of the state penitentiary where a condemned man is about to die, leaving the reader to wonder what our witness-narrator is doing there.

Jones will be on hand for a book signing from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 23 at Full Circle bookstore, which is in 50 Penn Place, 1900 NW Expressway. The storyteller will offer tales worth listening to. Perhaps Jones will reveal how he personally was saved by a caring high school teacher.

Other titles by Justin Jones are "Tales of the Caseload" and "Perils of Ms. Apple."

— Sue Hinton, retired English professor at Oklahoma City Community College

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: “The Devil’s Smokehouse” by Oklahoman Justin Jones is a new mystery