The Mayor's Daughter

Overview

In the north Texas oil-boom town of Kiowa Falls, civilization is just beginning to overtake frontier chaos. Ru-Marie, the daughter of the town’s mayor, is a well-read, young romantic and budding artist. Her tastes in love—her parents insist—are less refined. As they throw off the sham of sophistication, a family war erupts and, with it, frontier justice. Set in the 1920s, this novel utilizes several means in order to recount the intriguing events, including first-person accounts, letters, an interview, and murder trial excerpts.

Reviews

"The Mayor’s Daughter is big and grand, swirling around love that lives in pride, love that is selfishness in disguise, love that becomes hate, love that turns to death, love that will not let go." —Robert Flynn, author, Jade: Outlaw

"Acclaimed novelist and poet James Hoggard brings his considerable narrative skills to bear in probing the destructive interactions within a rigid, father-knows-best family." —Elroy Bode, author, In a Special Light

"Hoggard sees into the depths of the human heart with unerring judgment and insight. . . . The Mayor’s Daughter gives us an extraordinarily powerful family drama." —Sarah Bird, author, The Yokota Officers Club

"Hoggard does a convincing job of showing how the thin veneer of civilization in Kiowa Falls barely obscures the roughness of the frontier. Recommend this one to readers of Larry Watson's Montana 1948." —Booklist

"In the 1920s, a murder rocks a small Texas town. . . . There, artistic high-schooler Rue-Marie Coleman falls in love with Buster Lopreis. . . . Hoggard uses a variety of strategies to build up to his violent climax, combining straightforward narrative with what Ru-Marie conveys to John Evening through interviews." —Booklist

"Hoggard tells his version with dialogue that jumps off the page and with different narrative styles that construct a three-dimensional effect." —San Antonio Express-News (August 2011)

"Texas author James Hoggard infuses his story with thematic layers ranging from the matter of responsibility and the blurry line between certainty and ambiguity to the quirkiness of memory. Hoggard's dialogue stabs and draws blood. Readers quickly will realize they have a sensitive, complex and insightful work of art on their hands, along with a disarming message about humanity." —San Antonio Express-News (August 28, 2011)

"Set in North Texas in the mid-1920s, James Hoggard’s beautifully written family drama begins with a simple and familiar premise: An artistic, intelligent young woman still in high school falls in love with a young man who has dropped out to work at an oil refinery. Her parents consider him far beneath their daughter." —Dallas Morning News (September 2011)

Author Biography

James Hoggard is an author, a translator, and a poet whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Arts & Letters, Harvard Review, and Words Without Borders. He is the recipient of the Lon Tinkle Award and the former president of the Texas Institute of Letters. He is the Perkins-Prothro Distinguished Professor of English at Midwestern State University and the author of numerous books, including Triangles of Light: The Edward Hopper Poems and Wearing the River. He lives in Wichita Falls, Texas.