The Sheriff by David Scott Meyers [Book Review]

Title: The Sheriff
Series: The Fellowship Series
Authors: David Scott Meyers
Illustrators: David Scott Meyers, Samantha Lee Meyers, and Hannah Nicole Meyers
Length: 380
Book Type: Physical paperback
Publisher: FSP (Fin Scott Publishing)
Disclaimer: A copy of this book was provided to me in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Blurb from Goodreads

Two years have gone by in the surrounding area of Fellowship. Huey Morgan continues to feel unappreciated in his role as the deputy for the sheriff’s department of Duck County. Playing second fiddle to Sheriff Absalom Holmes, a well-respected constable who has been getting too comfortable in his job and becoming lazier and lazier, Huey feels the weight of the work falling solely on his shoulders. Late one, hot summer night, Huey is awakened by a phone call, which leads to a gruesome discovery that will shake the foundations of this small town…

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Review:

The second book to the The Fellowship series/trilogy, this one takes place roughly 2 years after the first book, The Contractor. While that book had focused on Elias as the main protagonist, Huey becomes the main focus in this book and his relationship with Elias is still an important part of the plot. In fact, that same relationship becomes a key factor to some events that takes place towards the end of book 2.

In book 2, we are starring Huey who also was part of book one, albeit not as central as Elias was. The start of book two revolves around Deputy Huey and his relationship with the town Sheriff. Up in his age, he’s starting to become a bit old and lazy in his job. A good handful of things, that should be the Sheriff’s task, falls on Huey’s lap and he’s beginning to feel a taaadd bit underappreciated. As much as he’s disgruntled with Sheriff Absalom’s recent behavior on the job, he still has a bit of respect for the man and takes the work up in stride, despite the internal complaints. When something awful happens just a few chapters into the book, it shakes up not just Huey, but the entire town as well.

The cases in this book mostly tie to a single one but the suspense is definitely there. The reader is pulled in and you become intrigued, constantly flipping to see how the story unfolds. You keep reading, seeing where the story is going. I managed to sort of guess who the culprit is pretty early on, but with a town so small as this, where everyone knows everyone’s business, the list was pretty sparse to begin with.

The Sheriff has a handful of old characters coming back along with a few new ones. Amongst the new bunch is a state agent named Cynthia. Sharon, a lovely lady from the diner, is back and so is that sketchy pastor. There’s Buggy, the intimidating (but really a bit of a teddy) man who works on cars and I think he’s one of my favorite characters. There are a couple of older grumpy humans, there’s a “Daddy will pay my fine so I can go however fast I want” speeding brat of a teenager, there’s a drunkard who calls the bar his church, and a bunch more other colorful people. Fellowship might be small but damn there sure is an array of very interesting people there.

The only thing I really dislike is that occasionally the dialogue feels a bit unrealistic and I have spent days on this, not really putting a solid finger to why it feels that way. When I read it out loud, throw an accent in there, and slow down, the text doesn’t feel half as bad as it does. It wasn’t so big of a thing until the 4th time I made the same remark of “Do people talk like this? People don’t talk like this.” Then, I’d read it out loud and go, “But maybe they do?” The closest I’ve gotten to why I feel the dialogue is a bit off is perhaps because sometimes the characters tend to ramble. It almost feels like the script to an NPC who is explaining something to the player character. It’s not a major deal of course, just something I made note of more than once as I went through the book.

HUEY. This man. I love and hate him. He’s the a bit of a jittery guy and in a way, I kind of appreciate that about him. In a world of superhuman cops that never seem fazed, he’s pretty normal. He’s distraught because of the terrible incident early in the book and it carries with him through the entire story (and I’m sure it’ll carry into book 3). He’s not focused, he can’t concentrate and starts like 5 tasks just to jump between them and that’s pretty accurate because when I’m very anxious I honestly do the same thing. As the book goes, you could almost see the rock slates, of each weird incident, just appear and stack on his back.

The problem? For a deputy…he’s quick to get annoyed and easy to bait. Once you get your hands on your fair share of a**holes, you start rolling your eyes and you’re not easy to rile up because then the power is in the hands of the person trying to bait you. Sometimes, he’s more of an emotional person than rational but maybe it’s because he’s practically on his last and dying nerve by the end of the book from everything that’s going on and the poor guy can’t catch a break 😦

The plot gets interesting halfway on but, even in the beginning, the book is full of events. In a town of 1 Sheriff and 1 deputy, Huey is run ragged. I’d be as jittery and anxious of a cop as Huey, if I knew that there was probably no backup coming and you’re in the middle of a creepy house with thunder outside and the next neighbor forever away.

All in all, the book was a pretty good read and I quite liked it. I screamed “OH HELLLL NO!” at the end because there were some [hell no worthy] events happening, by the last page, and not to mention it just leaves on a major cliffhanger. I can’t wait and I’m ready for book three to come out and I want to see justice being done! There was something Huey was involved in, in book 1, that was carried into The Sheriff. I feel like justice was not done and his secret remains veiled behind a thin transparent cloth, but it’s definitely coming up (I can FEEL it in my BONES).

Fun note: The same illustrations and the same fun choice of fonts from the first book is back. The entire book is essentially in bold text and it’s fun because then the usual bold that writers use to place emphasis on words becomes an underline instead (because it’s already in bold!). The book is just as easy and smooth to read as the first and it really helped me in just chomping my way through it.