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Blood on the Roses
In 1955, at the height of alarm over the Emmett Till murder in Mississippi and after the Supreme Court ruling against school segregation, AP reporter Rachel Feigen is sent to Tennessee on a missing person case. She quickly finds herself caught up in problems of her own when three local extremists decide to teach her not to poke around in things that are none of her business. This frank and honest story does justice to its superb Southern setting, capturing both the engaging qualities of the Southern people and the terrible wrongs of discrimination and acts of pure racism carried out by a few.
252 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2011
About the author
Robert Hays
32 books19 followersAbout the Author
Robert Hays has been a newspaper reporter, public relations writer, magazine editor, and university professor and administrator. A native of Illinois, he taught in Texas and Missouri and retired in 2008 from a long journalism teaching career at the University of Illinois. He holds three degrees, including an interdisciplinary Ph.d., from Southern Illinois University and is a U.S. Army veteran. He has spent a great deal of time in South Carolina, the home state of his wife Mary, and has been a member of the South Carolina Writers Workshop. His publications include academic journal and popular periodical articles and nine previous books, including one published in paperback edition under a new title and his collaborative work with Gen. Oscar Koch, G-2: Intelligence for Patton. Robert and Mary live in Champaign, Illinois. They have two sons and a grandson and share (long story!) a cat named Eddie with the family next door.
Robert Hays has been a newspaper reporter, public relations writer, magazine editor, and university professor and administrator. A native of Illinois, he taught in Texas and Missouri and retired in 2008 from a long journalism teaching career at the University of Illinois. He holds three degrees, including an interdisciplinary Ph.d., from Southern Illinois University and is a U.S. Army veteran. He has spent a great deal of time in South Carolina, the home state of his wife Mary, and has been a member of the South Carolina Writers Workshop. His publications include academic journal and popular periodical articles and nine previous books, including one published in paperback edition under a new title and his collaborative work with Gen. Oscar Koch, G-2: Intelligence for Patton. Robert and Mary live in Champaign, Illinois. They have two sons and a grandson and share (long story!) a cat named Eddie with the family next door.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 13, 2013
I chose Robert Hays’ book "Blood on the Roses" as part of a personal quest to go back to the years in which I’ve lived in order to learn about things I either missed or misunderstood. Like so many of us, my political, social and economic awareness lagged behind the times. What I don’t know about my own historical times is far greater than what I do know.
For example, I was a high school student in the mid-to-late 1950s when desegregation caused an explosion of emotions in the South. My little world in central West Virginia was neither north nor south but my community was very white. As far as I knew, there was only one old black man in our town; he was the caretaker of the only mansion in town, inhabited only occasionally by an oilman they called “The Great Wildcatter” who lived up in Pittsburgh.
We didn’t know the caretaker’s black grandchildren lived with him and attended a black high school in a larger town several miles away — until the schools were ordered to desegregate.
I had never heard of desegregation and so I didn’t understand why these black children showed up suddenly in our classes. It was the first time I had ever been around people of color.
But it was just a curiosity. I had no strong feelings about them one way or another, except for the newness of the situation. There was no interracial conflict in our community before or after desegregation because we had no experience with it. And it passed quickly. The black children disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared. I still wonder where they went.
The era ended and I had not a clue!
In later years I saw the reports about racial strife that went on well into my adulthood. And, even then, I did not understand the issues fully because I had never been exposed to either side of the culture.
"Blood on the Roses" gave me a taste of what I missed and allowed me to understand, if not appreciate, why history was as it was. And Robert Hays did it with the magic that can only occur in a good historical novel.
I suspect that’s exactly what Robert Hays set out to do. He masterfully created characters that would enable anyone who wasn’t there to step back in the day, but in a different place with a different dynamic than we ourselves experienced.
And he did it without choosing the bigger-than-life dramatic events that have been seared on our brains. But rather with a comparatively simple story we can get our arms around and understand.
"Blood on the Roses" doesn’t take place on the schoolhouse steps or the back of a bus. It doesn’t shout the lessons with screaming headlines. It takes place around a modest motel, a rose garden, a few local bigots with low regard not only for blacks but also Jews, homosexuals and women.
The heroine is neither a flaming liberal nor a judgmental crusader, but rather a somewhat mild reporter whose mission seems only to be finding out what happened to a young gay man who went missing.
I had to wonder why her editor would allow her to spend so much time and money on what seemed more like the work of a private investigator than a journalist. But her purpose — and the point of the book — was to paint the picture of a culture and time that is often misrepresented by the extremes of a more sensational story.
Thank you, Robert Hays, for a rational account of an irrational time. I’m the better for it.
For example, I was a high school student in the mid-to-late 1950s when desegregation caused an explosion of emotions in the South. My little world in central West Virginia was neither north nor south but my community was very white. As far as I knew, there was only one old black man in our town; he was the caretaker of the only mansion in town, inhabited only occasionally by an oilman they called “The Great Wildcatter” who lived up in Pittsburgh.
We didn’t know the caretaker’s black grandchildren lived with him and attended a black high school in a larger town several miles away — until the schools were ordered to desegregate.
I had never heard of desegregation and so I didn’t understand why these black children showed up suddenly in our classes. It was the first time I had ever been around people of color.
But it was just a curiosity. I had no strong feelings about them one way or another, except for the newness of the situation. There was no interracial conflict in our community before or after desegregation because we had no experience with it. And it passed quickly. The black children disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared. I still wonder where they went.
The era ended and I had not a clue!
In later years I saw the reports about racial strife that went on well into my adulthood. And, even then, I did not understand the issues fully because I had never been exposed to either side of the culture.
"Blood on the Roses" gave me a taste of what I missed and allowed me to understand, if not appreciate, why history was as it was. And Robert Hays did it with the magic that can only occur in a good historical novel.
I suspect that’s exactly what Robert Hays set out to do. He masterfully created characters that would enable anyone who wasn’t there to step back in the day, but in a different place with a different dynamic than we ourselves experienced.
And he did it without choosing the bigger-than-life dramatic events that have been seared on our brains. But rather with a comparatively simple story we can get our arms around and understand.
"Blood on the Roses" doesn’t take place on the schoolhouse steps or the back of a bus. It doesn’t shout the lessons with screaming headlines. It takes place around a modest motel, a rose garden, a few local bigots with low regard not only for blacks but also Jews, homosexuals and women.
The heroine is neither a flaming liberal nor a judgmental crusader, but rather a somewhat mild reporter whose mission seems only to be finding out what happened to a young gay man who went missing.
I had to wonder why her editor would allow her to spend so much time and money on what seemed more like the work of a private investigator than a journalist. But her purpose — and the point of the book — was to paint the picture of a culture and time that is often misrepresented by the extremes of a more sensational story.
Thank you, Robert Hays, for a rational account of an irrational time. I’m the better for it.
May 3, 2014
Blood on the Roses by Robert Hays revisits turbulent times in American history. It is 1955. The Brown v. Board of Education decision is issued, and the Emmett Till murder trial begins; both igniting debates about integration and equality, bigotry and race.
That summer, Guy Saillot goes missing on his way to visit a male friend at the University of Tennessee. Before Guy disappears, he sends a postcard to his parents in Baltimore. Due to the Saillot’s strong ties in the community, the local FBI office gets involved in the search for their only child.
Agent Anton Schuler is in charge of the missing person investigation. Initially, he believes the search may be unnecessary. Schuler thinks the FBI may be, “looking for a queer little Frenchman who probably found a boyfriend and decided to hide out for a while and have fun.”
Rachel Feigen, a Baltimore reporter with the Associated Press, is tasked with following the story. After interviewing Guy’s mother and consulting with her editor, Bill Skyles, Feigen drives to Tennessee in search of answers.
Effie Catlin checks Feigen into room 10 of the Tennessee Bend Motel – the motel where Guy mailed the postcard. Feigen shows her Guy’s picture, but Effie doesn’t recognize him. And, Effie finds no registration for Guy Saillot in her files.
Seeking food, Barney Vidone, the motel manager, sends Feigen to Big John’s Place. Feigen shows Guy’s picture to the hostess, Mandy, who remembers the friendly man with the green eyes. Later, Mandy calls Feign with a tip, “try to get close to George.” George is a deaf-mute handyman that works at the Tennessee Bend Motel.
Feigen shares the Saillot sighting with Agent Schuler. Schuler pulls his friend, Agent Charlie Monroe, into the investigation; they plan to meet up in Tennessee. Word of the new evidence also brings AP editor Skyles to Tennessee.
Vidone and his friends, Bishop Collins and Harlan MacElroy, despise Feigen. She is a nosey reporter from the big city, and an “uppity” Jew. She needs to be taken down a peg. Bishop Collins has a plan. Barney Vidone has a room. Harlan MacElroy has a gun. Working together, they will teach the “jewgirl” a lesson. They use the gun to kidnap two black men. They lock Feigen in a room with the “nigger boys”, deciding to let “nature take its course” as they watch from the secret space within room 10, confident the boy’s baser instincts will out. But, the players do not act as the play is designed.
In Blood on the Roses, Hays skillfully crafts a novel that is bold in its subject matters, beautiful in its descriptive settings, and complex in its characterizations. I savored the story even as I condemned the circumstances.
I highly recommend Blood on the Roses. Read it for its keen ability to shine a light on what happens when we blindly tolerate irrational perceptions of what is good and right and acceptable. Anywhere. Everywhere.
That summer, Guy Saillot goes missing on his way to visit a male friend at the University of Tennessee. Before Guy disappears, he sends a postcard to his parents in Baltimore. Due to the Saillot’s strong ties in the community, the local FBI office gets involved in the search for their only child.
Agent Anton Schuler is in charge of the missing person investigation. Initially, he believes the search may be unnecessary. Schuler thinks the FBI may be, “looking for a queer little Frenchman who probably found a boyfriend and decided to hide out for a while and have fun.”
Rachel Feigen, a Baltimore reporter with the Associated Press, is tasked with following the story. After interviewing Guy’s mother and consulting with her editor, Bill Skyles, Feigen drives to Tennessee in search of answers.
Effie Catlin checks Feigen into room 10 of the Tennessee Bend Motel – the motel where Guy mailed the postcard. Feigen shows her Guy’s picture, but Effie doesn’t recognize him. And, Effie finds no registration for Guy Saillot in her files.
Seeking food, Barney Vidone, the motel manager, sends Feigen to Big John’s Place. Feigen shows Guy’s picture to the hostess, Mandy, who remembers the friendly man with the green eyes. Later, Mandy calls Feign with a tip, “try to get close to George.” George is a deaf-mute handyman that works at the Tennessee Bend Motel.
Feigen shares the Saillot sighting with Agent Schuler. Schuler pulls his friend, Agent Charlie Monroe, into the investigation; they plan to meet up in Tennessee. Word of the new evidence also brings AP editor Skyles to Tennessee.
Vidone and his friends, Bishop Collins and Harlan MacElroy, despise Feigen. She is a nosey reporter from the big city, and an “uppity” Jew. She needs to be taken down a peg. Bishop Collins has a plan. Barney Vidone has a room. Harlan MacElroy has a gun. Working together, they will teach the “jewgirl” a lesson. They use the gun to kidnap two black men. They lock Feigen in a room with the “nigger boys”, deciding to let “nature take its course” as they watch from the secret space within room 10, confident the boy’s baser instincts will out. But, the players do not act as the play is designed.
In Blood on the Roses, Hays skillfully crafts a novel that is bold in its subject matters, beautiful in its descriptive settings, and complex in its characterizations. I savored the story even as I condemned the circumstances.
I highly recommend Blood on the Roses. Read it for its keen ability to shine a light on what happens when we blindly tolerate irrational perceptions of what is good and right and acceptable. Anywhere. Everywhere.
January 17, 2016
Blood of the Roses was a good read. It incorporates American history, racism, struggle, innocence, evil and suspense.
February 8, 2016
I was drawn completely into this entertaining and beautifully descriptive story of mystery and intrigue bound in the history of its times. Taking place in the 1950’s in a small Tennessee resort town; it has more unexpected twists and turns than a Smoky Mountain road. Author, Robert Hays, does a masterful job of creating complex characters, some noble and some most vile. All driven to action according to their point of view in relation to the early Civil Rights movement evolving around them.
--Jerry Barrett
--Jerry Barrett
November 22, 2016
Great fiction about the local reactions to the Brown vs, Board of Education.
Hays is an excellent story teller. The characters are well developed with human frailties. You are able to see yourself in the situations. I especially appreciated the introduction of similarities of the attitudes about Jews and homosexuality. I thnk he reminds us of how misguided ignorant hate is justified in the mind of the hater.
I enjoyed the book and could not put it down. You had suspense, murder, FBI, voyeurism, love and good writing.
Hays is an excellent story teller. The characters are well developed with human frailties. You are able to see yourself in the situations. I especially appreciated the introduction of similarities of the attitudes about Jews and homosexuality. I thnk he reminds us of how misguided ignorant hate is justified in the mind of the hater.
I enjoyed the book and could not put it down. You had suspense, murder, FBI, voyeurism, love and good writing.
August 25, 2018
Definitely a timely book... so wish we had moved past these times... but important story
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews