Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 3, 1994                   TAG: 9403270155
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: F-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO Book page editor
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A NEW AND NOVEL TELLING OF THE COURTHOUSE SHOOTOUT

The 1912 shootout in the Hillsville Courthouse may be Southwest Virginia's most famous criminal act. It's still one of the most interesting, a story that has been written about, told and retold countless times.

Rodger Doss has taken the real events and placed them at the center of a short historical novel. He is not a professional writer, and so his prose is rough and ungrammatical in places, too sentimental in others. But he brings something else equally important to the story - a genuine love for it. It's obvious on every page of this book that he knows the countryside and the people he's writing about, and that his affection for them runs deep.

For my money, that's a rare quality that means more than literary polish. Doss's structure is loosely modeled on Jack Shaefer's "Shane." Events concerning adults in a small community are seen through the eyes of a boy, young John Fitzpatrick. He lives with his widowed mother in the Hillsville hotel, and sometimes helps out at Mr. Witt's general store, a place where men gather to discuss current affairs.

As the book begins, they're talking about the upcoming trial of Floyd Allen in Judge Massie's court. Was Allen justified in taking his nephews from the deputies who had arrested them? Did local politics play a role in his actions and whatever justice he might receive? Those questions pale when compared to the events that take place at the courthouse when the verdict and the sentence were announced. That's the point of Doss's novel.

For the finer details of the story, Rufus Gardner's book "The Courthouse Tragedy" is still probably the most accessible version. Doss lists it among his sources. He, though, is just as interested in the everyday life of the early 20th century; how people conducted their business and social affairs, what they hated, what was important. In that regard, Doss sounds like he has done his research. His details ring true, and sometimes, he gets his subject absolutely right. This is what he has to say about moonshine whiskey: "Women disclaimed it; preachers abhored it; children couldn't wait for the day they would be old enough to try it."

Like every variation of the story that I've read, this one left me wanting to know more about the people who committed such violent acts for what seem now to be relatively inconsequential reasons. That's not meant as a criticism; it's part of any good tale.