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Review
Tulsa Time
Tulsa Time by
Letha Albright

Oak Tree Press
250 pages, July 2000
ISBN 1892343126
Reviewed by PJ Nunn

Reviewed from galleys. Length and changes may occur before publishing.

Read our author interview


Viv Powers is a reporter covering the crime beat for the Tahlequah Daily Tribune. Of course, covering criminal activity in a small Oklahoma town isn’t usually all that exciting.

When Viv gets a call to cover the pending apprehension of two escapees from the local institution that houses the criminally insane, she feels a surge of adrenaline. Real news! As it turns out, there’s not much to report. They caught one man with little resistance, and the other was nowhere in sight. Viv trudges home, shakes off the snow and waits for her live-in lover, Charley, to return from Tulsa, worrying about the traveling conditions and feeling more than a little lonely.

Charley’s truck arrives safely, but he’s not in it. One of his musicians brought it back - along with a message that Charley has been arrested for the murder of his producer, a friend from the old days. Viv is plunged headlong into a nightmare that seems to have no end. Charley’s not talking and suddenly, everything is changed. Too many small town secrets. Viv can’t believe that Charley is guilty, but he’s not defending himself and she soon realizes she’d better dust off her rusty investigative skills. The killer isn’t finished yet and somebody’s after her.

Albright does a fine job of duplicating the essence of a small town in Oklahoma. The plot is sketchy though, perhaps because the book is not long. Still, she carefully describes a variety of relationships, some that are easy to anticipate and others that aren’t.

TULSA TIME is a dark portrait of trust that falters and relationships that mirror the vulnerability we’d all prefer not to see. The author shows vividly that trust is a process, not an event, and that enacting justice is as fragile as we are, and never comes without a price. It’s an interesting study worth the time investment.


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