A Single Shot

Oct 03, 2011 karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

i was fooled.

i opened the book, as you do, and i started reading.

in a time when reliable standards of personal conduct have allegedly eroded and, no longer anchored by religious convictions or cultural cohesion, have diminished to irresolute situational postures and secular mumbles, an older, less elastic code of honor may seem vastly appealing, even heroic. to avert the confusions attendant on choice, such codes are simplified, starkly so, but clearly: do that to me, you can rely on me to do t...more i was fooled.

i opened the book, as you do, and i started reading.

in a time when reliable standards of personal conduct have allegedly eroded and, no longer anchored by religious convictions or cultural cohesion, have diminished to irresolute situational postures and secular mumbles, an older, less elastic code of honor may seem vastly appealing, even heroic. to avert the confusions attendant on choice, such codes are simplified, starkly so, but clearly: do that to me, you can rely on me to do this to you. do that to my kin, watch for smoke from your garage. say that to my wife, and this is the bog where your worried relatives will find you facedown and at peace forever

and i was like - "ooh, it's going to be this kind of narrator - wonderful." i like the twisty-wordy backwoods narrator with vengeance in his heart. and it wasn't until i turned the page that i realized "of course i like this "narrator". this is daniel woodrell, and i am reading the introduction." fool. books, please label your introductions as such, because some of us will forget there is supposed to be an introduction and will read "six angles of wrath" as a chapter title and that will throw off our whole day, because this is not a similar voice to the narrator, and it is jarring to dummies like me to have to re-acclimate.

however - this book is fantastic. it came into the store before i got there one day, and greg set it aside because it had an introduction by daniel woodrell (yeah- i know - i just forgot, okay?? jeez), and was compared on the back to tom franklin, cormac mccarthy, and ron rash, who are three of my favorites (why can't castle freeman jr ever get any recognition??) but, yeah - it is exactly my kind of book.

in his dizzyingly flattering introduction, woodrell compares jones to jim thompson, and if this book is any indication, this is a more perfect comparison than the others. this protagonist is a little scary. but not in the way you would expect from reading the plot: a poacher goes buck hunting in the woods and accidentally kills a young girl. he also finds a sackful of money. so he covers up the crime and takes the money (take notes here, greg). but you find a sackful of money, eventually the owners of that money are going to track you down, right? right. so that's the plot, if you also throw in a wife and son who have left, a neighbor and his very confident teenage daughter, a physically damaged lawyer, some sexually uninhibited ladies, assorted thugs, a one-eyed ex-stripper, and a dog.

and that's all well and good - those are the elements that make up any good woods-noir. but, oh john moon. he is such a dappled man. overall i think he means well, but there were so many times, because of this goodness that was in him, that i wanted to scream "why are you doing that??? this is a mistake!!" and the man seems to have no normal sense of fear, or apprehension or... precaution. so many things happen that should cause a normal man to pause and reflect and perhaps adjust his course, but not john moon, he takes it all in stride, and keeps on living, just doing what he does, despite the very scary things that are happening to him by the very bad men. that absence of fear in the face of threat makes for a scarier, darker man than the bad guys doing the terrorizing. you have no idea what a man like that is capable of, do you? ooooh, it's good stuff. terrible all-around decisions, but good stuff.

of his other books, only boot tracks, on europa, is still in print, but i am going to read that next week, and see about getting the other four from my book-connect.

while i am doing that - read this book, you fans of the appalachia-noir. it is at the top of its genre.(less)

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Nov 23, 2011 Lou rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-thriller, october-reading, psychos

The story starts off with a bang literally! A man in the wilderness stalking his prey and it’s not even hunting season! Somethings not right. Visceral and fully loaded with tension, hooks you in and does not let go.
With a dead girl, missing money and more dead to come in the balance the author takes you through seven days of hell with the main protagonist John Moon as the leading role. Fate will play it’s role. Edge of your seat page-turning with some wonderful writing. I can’t find fault in thi...more The story starts off with a bang literally! A man in the wilderness stalking his prey and it’s not even hunting season! Somethings not right. Visceral and fully loaded with tension, hooks you in and does not let go.
With a dead girl, missing money and more dead to come in the balance the author takes you through seven days of hell with the main protagonist John Moon as the leading role. Fate will play it’s role. Edge of your seat page-turning with some wonderful writing. I can’t find fault in this thrill read.
John is not quite 100% all there, i seem to understand from the story that he is having some psychological problems. He at one point cooks rattlesnake strip steak, yes that’s right rattlesnake that’s new to me as a meal.
A good man at the core faced with a guilt that would not leave him. The protagonist finds himself in possession of quite alot of money and someone wants it, that money brings hope to the protagonists life of winning back his wife, who he is obsessed with. She does not want to be part of his life anymore and with a young child in the balance he just does not want to let go.
Written in the vein of Jim Thompson and recently a novel i loved, with a similar pace and brutality, book:The Devil All the Time|10108463].
Within these pages you will find examples of the most brutal and grittiest sentences. The author does not waste any page as it is a gripping read from beginning to the end. Must warn you that there are a few passages of sexual explicit content.
“His small, simple world has turned ambiguously sinister. Heads have two faces, one visible, one not. Words, though spoken in proper linguistic form, don’t mean what they ought to. From one moment to the next, nothing in this upside-down world is static. Even voices dichotomise, their bifurcating sounds clouding his thoughts, sending his mind reeling first down one oath, then down another. Who can be trusted in this world? Humanity itself- the whole great mass- is mutable. John feels Ill equipped to deal with it.”

http://more2read.com/?review=a-single-shot-by-matthew-f-jones (less)

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Oct 09, 2011 Miles rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews

Anyone's life can change in an instant. In Matthew F. Jones's acclaimed novel, one man's world is overturned with a single shot.

Trespassing on what was once his family's land, John Moon hears a rustle in the brush and fires. But instead of the deer he was expecting, he finds the body of a young woman, killed by his stray bullet. A terrible dilemma is made worse when he stumbles upon her campground - and the piles of drugs and money concealed there.

Moon makes his choice: he hides the corpse, and...more Anyone's life can change in an instant. In Matthew F. Jones's acclaimed novel, one man's world is overturned with a single shot.

Trespassing on what was once his family's land, John Moon hears a rustle in the brush and fires. But instead of the deer he was expecting, he finds the body of a young woman, killed by his stray bullet. A terrible dilemma is made worse when he stumbles upon her campground - and the piles of drugs and money concealed there.

Moon makes his choice: he hides the corpse, and takes the cash. His decision will have consequences he can neither predict or control.

Originally published in 1996, A Single Shot by Matthew F Jones is proof, if ever it was required, that Mulholland Books are on the right track. Still in its infancy the publisher - part of the Hodder & Stoughton stable in the UK - continues its fine publication record with another intriguing and dark title.

Billed as a classic Noire novel, A Single Shot is one of those titles you find yourself asking one simple question throughout – “what would I do”. Set over a period of one week the premise for A Single Shot is simple; a man named John Moon is out hunting – illegally I may add - and finding a deer in his sights releases the safety on his shotgun and takes his shot. He wounds the animal and as he approaches his kill discovers the deer has escaped leaving a bloodied trail and so begins a week of decisions that will in one way or another have a lasting effect on a number of people. Moon decides to track the deer rather than leave it to die an agonising death – quite a noble decision – but this is about as far as noble and clear thinking goes.

Moon finally tracks the wounded animal and spots movement in the brush. A mass of brown and white makes a sudden movement and with the safety catch off he takes his shot. The mass immediately falls to the ground but is hidden by the dense foliage. Lowering his gun he hears movement behind him and as he turns the wounded deer attacks. So what happened? Who or what did he shoot?

Full review on my blog here
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Oct 17, 2011 Michelle added it · review of another edition

A Single Shot is a novel that is deceptively simple and beautiful in its pathos. Matthew F. Jones forces the reader to imagine John Moon's guilt-laden sufferings while highlighting his fear-driven actions and reactions to events. Because of this, however, the reader is torn between sympathy and repugnance over John's actions after the accident. While the reader understands that John is just trying to gain back some semblance of a normal life, his actions are questionable. Would the end results b...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Allan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: early, reviewer, book

Noir horror at it’s creepy best. [return][return]Written by Matthew F. Jones in 1996 and now reprinted by Mulholland Books, this classic of the genre travels in Jim Thompson and Cormac McCarthy territory with lyric confidence that can jump from pastoral, if claustrophobic, descriptions of place and time to the rotting decadence that most of his human characters carry into the scene.[return][return]John Moon is a down-on-his-luck farmer whose wife and child have left and whose land has been sold...more

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May 09, 2013 Dierdra Byrd rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, thriller

I have a thing for books where people steal money, find money etc and try to keep it. The stories are always interesting to me and I like to see what ends up happening to them. A single shot seemed really interesting to me for that reason so I was anxious to read it.
A man who is not having an easy time is trying to poach a deer and instead only ends up wounding the deer. While trying to go after it to kill it he ends up shooting a young girl instead. While trying to cover that up he finds a lot...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Mitchell rated it 4 of 5 stars

After Sam Rockell was cast in the lead for the film adaptation of A Single Shot, I obviously became interested in checking out the source material to see what he would be taking on. Reading the novel, about a hunter named John Moon who stumbles into the schemes of backwater criminals and finds his life in danger as a result, it seems like Rockwell found a way to take on that Llewelyn Moss type of character he’s wanted (he auditioned for that role but didn’t get it). Matthew F. Jones’ novel blend...more After Sam Rockell was cast in the lead for the film adaptation of A Single Shot, I obviously became interested in checking out the source material to see what he would be taking on. Reading the novel, about a hunter named John Moon who stumbles into the schemes of backwater criminals and finds his life in danger as a result, it seems like Rockwell found a way to take on that Llewelyn Moss type of character he’s wanted (he auditioned for that role but didn’t get it). Matthew F. Jones’ novel blends elements of No Country for Old Men, Deliverance and Winter’s Bone (the writer of which actually loved this so much he wrote the foreword for the new edition) in this seedy thriller of a man struggling with his conscious while forced to pay heavy consequences for his misdeeds.

One small action drastically alters the course of his life and Jones does a remarkable job of keeping the narrative thrilling while also giving plenty of room to explore the nature of guilt inside of Moon. Leaving deep in the woods, secluded from most of the world, Moon is a lone figure and one of the more shocking things of the novel is just how little any of the other characters are actually in it. None of them show up for more than two scenes at the most, the majority of them not even that, and a lot of the action plays out with Moon in hunter mode — either stalking his attackers or trying to work out a way to get himself out of the mess he’s in.

Some of the characters come off as thin cliches on recycled stereotypes, but others — such as the morally gray lawyer Daggard Pitt and the tortured Vietnam veteran Simon Breedlove — are given an impressive amount of depth in their relatively short appearances. You feel like you get to know a lot of these characters through their experiences with Moon, but most of all the novel does a great job of placing you in his head. Through all of the many twists and turns it takes, Jones gets you right in there with him (more impressive given that it’s told in third person, rather than first) and you quickly enter a state of not being able to trust everyone, not even Moon at times.

Battered down constantly by the hell he’s enduring, the novel takes place over the course of one week with each chapter covering a whole day and it’s a steady descent into darkness for Moon. We open with a tragic accident and as the story continues the audience is constantly asking themselves the question of what they would do were they in Moon’s shoes. Jones opens up plenty of room for self-reflection and themes on the morality of man, all while crafting an engaging backwoods noir that leads to one of the most chilling finales I’ve ever encountered in a novel.

A Single Shot is a very solid and well-paced read that I had difficulty putting down (I read it in two sittings, first time I’ve done that in a while) and I’m looking forward to seeing it brought to the screen, particularly in the hands of Rockwell who should absolutely knock this out of the park. The director (David M. Rosenthal) makes me hesitant due to his track record of poorly received comedies that no one has heard of, but with a sterling cast and the fact that Jones wrote the screenplay himself I have a lot of faith in this one.(less)

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Oct 17, 2011 Tuck rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: noir, western-rural-with-tractors-horse

very nice rural noir set in upstate new york? (very well could have been upstate oklahoma for all the heavy accents and depressed farming economies). things start to go really bad when john moon, out poaching deer in JUNE!, accidentally kills a rattlesnake and a woman while also getting his buck. he gets what he is looking for in the end though.

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May 03, 2013 Andy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

I had never heard of the book or author until a recent review on Boing Boing piqued my interest. I'm glad I picked it up.

The story is deceptively simple - a fateful mistake, a bag of money a moral dilemma, the fall out. The execution though is masterful. The evocative, natural and sparse language. The depiction of small town rural mountain life which brings the environment to vivid life (definitely a book in which I had strong visual imagery throughout as I read). The violence of everyday life...more

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Jun 09, 2013 Jennifer Lauren Collins rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

If, somehow, Quentin Tarantino and Dostoevsky were to combine their efforts and write a piece of southern fiction...this might just be the result. A well-paced and disturbing read, this novel follows in the footsteps of the darker southern and Appalachian works by Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy, and Ron Rash among others.

Jones' main character, John Moon, is as believable as he is heartbreaking and frightening, and the narrative itself is nearly a carnival of grotesqueries. In the end, the t...more

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Sep 01, 2011 Asheley rated it 5 of 5 stars

A Single Shot is by far one of the best books I've read in a very long time. It is a fast-paced and gritty and everything noir fiction should be. Split into seven chapters corresponding to the seven days of the week, readers get an accurate idea of exactly how one man breaks down after making a split-second mistake and how no matter what he does, nothing helps him make up for it.

John Moon's wife is gone, and she took his son. He is without work, has no money, and lives alone in a little trailer...more A Single Shot is by far one of the best books I've read in a very long time. It is a fast-paced and gritty and everything noir fiction should be. Split into seven chapters corresponding to the seven days of the week, readers get an accurate idea of exactly how one man breaks down after making a split-second mistake and how no matter what he does, nothing helps him make up for it.

John Moon's wife is gone, and she took his son. He is without work, has no money, and lives alone in a little trailer deep in the mountains. One day Moon decides to go poaching for food. He shoots and kills a young girl when he mistakes her for a deer. In searching her campsite, he finds a very large sum of money hidden among her things. Stricken with guilt, he hides the body and takes the money as he tries to figure out what to do. Soon Moon realizes that someone knows what he did and will stop at nothing to take the money from him. The events that happen over the week following the shooting are unbelievable and harrowing but kept me on the edge of my seat.

I love the way protagonist's character is written. John Moon has a dialogue that is backwoodsy, but despite the way he sounds, he has a lot of intelligence and smarts on the inside. He very clearly loves his wife and son. I feel sorry for him in that I wanted him to get up and make his life better so he could get his family back: clean up, get a job, that sort of thing. But Moon made a poor decision that led to a split-second mistake that cannot be undone. The more Moon tries to think his way out of his problem, the more it consumes him. He eventually almost loses touch with reality even to the point that he carries on conversations with his victim.

The supporting cast of secondary characters is a mixed and interesting bunch, and I enjoyed them so much. They are written well and seem so true-to-life. If I had any wish to make about this book, I would wish to know a little bit more about some of them. For example, the villains are really, really bad--almost scary--so I think it would be a little more interesting to throw in a little more of their back story.

And...nature itself is quite a character in the story. Much of the action takes place outdoors, and the author seems to have penned the setting with ease. I was able to create the scene in my mind, perfectly I think, even hearing the sounds of the forest and smelling the trees and brush. As a reader I can appreciate this so much, given the subject of this story, because at certain times the setting, with its serenity and isolation and beauty, was what gave the story some beauty.

All-in-all, this book is not like most of the books that I read. It's a wonderfully written and artful noir fiction piece that is a bit hardboiled at times. The constant and blaring grit and rawness reminds me of the movie Deliverance. If you are a reader that has a weak stomach or is easily offended, this is not the book for you. If you are a reader who prefers romance novels and paranormal fantasies, you might want to pass this one up. However, if you are in the mood for something a little bit different and you don't mind some violence, I suggest giving this book a try. If you are a man and you want to read a man's book, here's my suggestion. If you are asking me for one of my favorite books of 2011, pick up A Single Shot. But be ready, it is a gripping page-turner for sure. It is brilliant. (less)

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Nov 03, 2012 Jrobertus rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have not quite made up my mind about this book. The story involves a displaced farmer and hunter, John Moon, who doesn't fit well with the modern world. While poaching deer in his Appalachian hole up he accidentally kills a teenage runaway. In fact she is involved with a drug dealer and the accident pulls Moon into a grisly mire. It is sort of a cross between Crime and Punishment and Deliverance. There is a lot of weighty soul searching, and a lot of descriptive violence and sex. The plot is e...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Rod Norman rated it 5 of 5 stars

As soon as I finished A Single Shot, I immediately sought out his other titles. This writer is a diamond in the rough, and I can't believe it took me this long to discover him. I also advise you to pick up the film Deep Water based on a novel of the same name by Jones. I'm sure the book is much better but the film gives you some insight into Jones' abstract thinking. Jones has a background as a criminal attorney & has knowledge of rural life that lends credibility to his voice. I can't wait...more

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May 06, 2012 Trevor John rated it 3 of 5 stars

Starts out great, gets a little lazy at times padding the place with overly technical descriptions of every plant and animal in the outdoors to give the reader a stock photo to go with the stock characters. Also has some embarrassing attempts at emulating Cormac McCarthy's inimitable brand of simile that only prove the man writing is a mechanic what wants to be a poet. The sex scenes seem to be written by a colorblind adolescent who watches porn and reads anatomy: boys have big thingies and girl...more

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Oct 26, 2011 Casey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Pretty good literary thriller. Great premise, though I'm not sure how orignal it is. I think the last half or third of the novel doesn't work as well as the the first half. The violence gets a little more stylized, whereas in the beginning it is gritty and utterly realistic, and there is the classic (or not) moment where "the bad guy" explains the plot/mystery while holding the main character at gun point. It's a short passage, but that really hurt the book for me.

Really though, it's an interes...more

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Nov 20, 2011 Alecia rated it 3 of 5 stars

The premise is a good one. John Moon, a downtrodden man who is poaching game on a neighbor's land, accidentally shoots and kills a teenage girl and is horrified. He also finds a large stash of money nearby and takes that, as he cannot resist. After covering up the killing and reeling from his act, his life starts to disintegrate. His wife has left him, taking his baby son with her and he tries again to get her back. You know this story is going nowhere but downhill because of John's desperation....more

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Jun 03, 2013 Andrew Huff rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's nice to read something a little different. From the plot to the settings to the characters, everything is a little messy and complicated but it's a very interesting story. Probably the biggest compliment I can give a writer is that the story does not feel overly contrived; i.e., the dialogue, decisions, and actions of the characters feel organic. That's definitely the case here. It's not often anymore than I feel satisfied after reading a book, but this one was well done.

I'd go to 4.5 on th...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Tfitoby rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: black-as-night

A book that is praised to the hilt by Daniel Woodrell in the foreword, compared to Jim Thompson, Cormac McCarthy, Tom Franklin and Ron Rash amongst others by multiple reviewers and yet failed to touch me in any way other than hoping it would soon be over.

The protagonist is this guy who feels like the life he was due to have has been taken away from him by the bank, his fathers death and his wife who got sick of him and took their kid with her. He accidentally kills a young girl and spends the ne...more

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Mar 30, 2012 Jenn Ravey rated it 5 of 5 stars

John Moon is a dude with bad luck. His dad lost the farm before his time. His wife left with his kid. And while he's out poaching on someone else's land tracking a wounded deer, he shoots something rustling in the bushes: a girl, a young one. And it seems she wasn't alone. John finds tens of thousands of dollars in cash wadded next to a sleeping bag, a teddy bear, and a photograph. As John frantically tries to undo the damage of that one shot, he realizes the girl's companion won't stop until h...more John Moon is a dude with bad luck. His dad lost the farm before his time. His wife left with his kid. And while he's out poaching on someone else's land tracking a wounded deer, he shoots something rustling in the bushes: a girl, a young one. And it seems she wasn't alone. John finds tens of thousands of dollars in cash wadded next to a sleeping bag, a teddy bear, and a photograph. As John frantically tries to undo the damage of that one shot, he realizes the girl's companion won't stop until he hunts down John..and the money.

A Single Shot has such a simple premise: down-on-his-luck guy makes a bad mistake, finds money, goes on the run... Except John Moon doesn't run. He stays right where he is, in his trailer in the mountains. Why? Because it's his land, and a man doesn't leave his land, even if it technically isn't his anymore. And as the town becomes more and more claustrophobic and the evidence of his mistake mounts, John is in terrible danger.

This book scared the crap out of me. I mean, you guys know I'm a scaredy cat already, but this book was petrifying because I live near backwoods towns like this one, and every brutality, every threat of violence is so real.

With books like Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (which scared me like crazy), you know there are sickos out there like that, but it seems a little...outlandish. A Single Shot? There's probably dudes like this all over the place. They've probably sat in my classroom. Backwoods guys - they know how to work a hunting knife. Need I say more? This book had my palms sweating and raised my heartbeat, too. It just doesn't stop. It's graphic and dirty, and I felt like I needed a shower for much of it, but I also couldn't help but root for John.

In his own way, he tries to make good out of the bad. At times, Jones seemed to be making him out as a smart guy (or smarter than he's given credit for), and he's not that. I mean, he doesn't go to the cops about the girl. He doesn't leave the money. He doesn't warn his ex-wife to take the baby and run. I think, more than anything, though, it's because of his guilt. It stymies him, and he absolutely has no idea how to get out of it. So you sit, and you watch it play out, and when it ends, it's not redemptive. But Jones doesn't insult your intelligence as a reader. The book ends the way it should because the bad guys are bad guys. The good guys, well, they aren't so good. And no one has an out.

Read this: if you like Cormac McCarthy. Or stories of guilt. Or thrillers.(less)

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Mar 12, 2012 John Quirk rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sometimes you know that whatever you write when reviewing a book isn't going to get anywhere near to doing it justice. And that applies equally to books you love more than, well, maybe not your children, but pretty close, and books that are so bad you'd happily take a scalpel to your brain to erase them from your memory. So I write these words in that knowledge.

I'd not heard of Jones prior to cracking the spine of A Single Shot, although it turns out I was aware of his work, having wanted to wat...more Sometimes you know that whatever you write when reviewing a book isn't going to get anywhere near to doing it justice. And that applies equally to books you love more than, well, maybe not your children, but pretty close, and books that are so bad you'd happily take a scalpel to your brain to erase them from your memory. So I write these words in that knowledge.

I'd not heard of Jones prior to cracking the spine of A Single Shot, although it turns out I was aware of his work, having wanted to watch the movie Deepwater for several years, not realising he wrote the novel upon which it is based.

It's a thing of wonder, discovering an author who writes this beautifully for the first time, more so when you realise there's a skutch of books on his backlist for you to read.

A Single Shot tells the story of a week in the life of John Moon, a lonely, awkward man who's lost his family farm, his wife and child and now earns a crust laying driveways and spending his spare time hunting on the forested mountain where he lives. Out stalking a deer one day, he hears a rustle in the bushes and shoots, a single shot. Instead of a deer, the bullet takes the life of a young woman. Panicking, Moon checks the area - she was holed up in a quarry, and he finds her campground, a stash of drugs and many thousands of dollars in cash.

Moon has a choice - and decides to bury the body and take the cash. He thinks there's nothing to link him to the corpse, and if he possessed a more astute brain, he might be right. But Moon is a simple man, who doesn't always think through his actions. The consequences of those actions bring those who own the drugs and the money after him and soon the hunter is the hunted, having to draw on his survival skills to stay alive. The small backwater town, the forested mountain, the one man trying to stay one step ahead of his pursuers; this has a feel of First Blood mixed with Deliverance, as the net is drawn tighter around Moon.

This is a book about choices, and, as a reader, you can't help but make your own decision as to what you'd have done in a similar situation, not you as you live your life now, but if you were in Moon's shoes, experiencing the shitty life he is. Despite his faults, Moon is an intensely proud man, a man of honour driven to desperate measures by the hand of fate and the dark deeds of those around him.

Jones doesn't waste many words, if any. It's a short book, 240 pages, but it packs one hell of a punch. It gets under your skin; the supporting characters, the town, the mountain itself, but none more so than Moon himself, a superb study of a man who has lost almost everything, but is damned if the bastards are going to take what little he has left.

A fine, fine read. It comes as no surprise that the movie is being filmed - but director David Rosenthal and stars Sam Rockwell (Moon), William H Macy and Forest Whitaker have their work cut out to come anywhere close. (less)

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Jan 27, 2013 Justin Sorbara-Hosker rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 02, 2012 Jade Eby rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own-and-need-to-read

Originally published at my blog Chasing Empty Pavements

This book is quite possibly the most surprising thing I’ve read in a while. I have to admit that since I’ve been doing a lot more review reading (meaning, reading books that I’ve agreed to read and review rather than books that just seem interesting to me), I’ve been pleasantly surprised quite a few times. I put off reading this novel because honestly, I wasn’t sure it was my type of book. I am SO glad I decided to read it. It’s taken me a f...more Originally published at my blog Chasing Empty Pavements

This book is quite possibly the most surprising thing I’ve read in a while. I have to admit that since I’ve been doing a lot more review reading (meaning, reading books that I’ve agreed to read and review rather than books that just seem interesting to me), I’ve been pleasantly surprised quite a few times. I put off reading this novel because honestly, I wasn’t sure it was my type of book. I am SO glad I decided to read it. It’s taken me a few days to write this review as this book did something to my brain. This is NOT a happy book. Not by any means. But it’s almost the type of book that NEEDS to written and to be read.

The Good: From the introduction (which was written by Dan Woodrell by the way, amazing introduction) to the very end of the novel, the writing was superb. I gobbled this gem up in about a day and a half and I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the text. Very early on, we get the sense that the main character, John is screwed. I never had a doubt that poor John was getting the shaft in this novel. His one mistake (the title aptly referring to that mistake) leads him on a wild-goose chase that just perpetuates a multitude of other mistakes. I honestly felt bad for John. Even though I’m not from the “backwoods” or “hillbilly” country, I have relatives that live somewhat similarly as the characters in this novel. Maybe that is why I felt like I knew John or at least knew him as a type of man. I’ve seen his type of man so many times. This made the novel more interesting because I felt I had a stake in what happened to John and what he was doing, saying and experiencing. The author did an exceptional job of peppering the novel with a certain redneck slang/dialect. It was perfect, not too much, not too over the top but just enough to know that’s EXACTLY the type of people talking. I enjoy when an author can pull this off, dialect is HARD to master but it was done exceptionally well. The author also managed to pull off a lot of internalizing and internal dialogue. Mostly, I’m not a huge fan of this in novels, but it was so masterfully done that I hardly noticed until the end that a huge chunk of the novel is actually John responding to things, thinking about things etc. The thing about this novel is that nothing really good ever happens. Maybe for some people that would deter them from reading this novel, but not me. You just know from the beginning that this novel isn’t one of those happy/hopeful novels. It’s just not. It speaks to the melancholy part of the soul. It tells the story of a good person who gets the raw end of the deal in life and is never able to escape that life. The thing is, no matter how many times someone tells you that good things will happen to good people, what they don’t tell you is that bad things happen to good people too. No one wants to talk about it but that is ultimately what this book is about. The bad things that happen to a good person and set in motion a string of events that furthers this notion. I’m sure there are about a hundred other things I could say about this novel but I’ve been rambling enough. Just go read it! You won’t be sorry.

The Bad: Nothing!

I give this novel an A! I highly recommend this novel for those who do not shy away from heavy thinking novels or novels that don’t have a happy theme attached to it. If anything, read this book for the beautiful writing!

**I received this book free from the publisher through www.netgalley.com. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.(less)

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Dec 18, 2011 Annet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: wilderness-books-can-usa

This is a raw, dark book, beautifully written, lots of wilderness scenes vividly described, featuring John Moon, main person in the book, a guy I felt sorry for because he seems to be trying to do good but ends up with bad choices and a miserable life time and time again,also featuring the bad guys, the pityful drinking and unhelpful lawyer, the ex wife whom he misses but who does not want to get back together, the partying but ultimately sad friend, the whole scene is pretty grim.
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Nov 20, 2011 Katherine Clark rated it 2 of 5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was noir, and I am not a huge fan of noir, but it was one of the better noir books I've ever read. I also couldn't help but compare it to A Simple Plan that had elements in common. A Simple Plan so upset me--annoyed me, and oddly enough, A Single Shot was not as disturbing somehow. But, I don't need to read any more books by this author.

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Oct 03, 2011 Linda rated it 2 of 5 stars

A Single Shot is the story of John Moon, a lonley misfit who accidentally shoots a teenage girl. The novel follows John and the results of his actions in the week following this event. The author is brilliant in describing the lives and despair of the rural poor. A word of caution, however, as the violence in the book is graphic.

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Oct 15, 2011 Quiltgranny rated it 1 of 5 stars

Sorry, even with all the high ratings from the Goodreads community, this book did absolutely nothing for me. The storyline was not new, just re-worked. Too many crude sexual scenes and comments ruined the writing for me. I'm definitely not a prude, but when sex seems gratuitous in plots, it really puts me off.

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Jun 19, 2012 Trish rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, unutterably-painful, totally-unexpected

This is the first time a Farrar Strauss Giroux book didn't pull me in. Actually, one of the reasons I picked it up was because I am usually never disappointed by the books FSG decides to publish. But I am busy in mind and body now and this book annoyed me so much I just decided to let someone else read it. Backwoods loser accidentally shoots a woman while hunting deer out of season. Everything he does after that bugs me--and some of it was downright unbelievable, like, it couldn't happen. And th...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Jon rated it 4 of 5 stars

A troubling but satisfying rural noir. I read an enthusiastic review on Boing-Boing and I decided to leap in. The plot was not unique but the writing was artfully sparse like good crime fiction aught to be. He did use the word "cacophony" a few too many times, but I forgive him.

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Nov 22, 2011 Debra rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-thriller

Raw... the dialog, characters, sex, events... raw is the only word that comes to mind. This small book starts out, as others have said, with a bang and its momentum picks up as it descends to its surprising and inevitable conclusion. I can't say I liked John Moon, but I came to pity him. I'm not sure I'd give this one 4 stars, although it properly deserves it for its unique style and premise... perhaps 3.5 stars.

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Jan 07, 2012 Stan Lanier rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Inexorable, ineluctable trouble. I can't believe someone pictured in a UVA Cavalier cap can know so well this land where most of us go only in spirit or imagination, if at all. Never met any English grad students telling these kinds of stories when I lived in Charlottesville.

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