Location

[killinchy]

I read all JLB's books out loud, very slowly, to savour all that beautiful prose. That is the highest compliment I can pay a book. Although I live on Vancouver Island, I have travelled through Arizona and New Mexico, and JLB describes the geography so vividly that I see it clearly. The problem I have is visualizing the town where Hackberry lives. It's on the border with Mexico, it's big enough to have a Sheriff, but I have the feeling it's very small. Can anybody tell me a place that is similar to Hackberry's home.

Thanks

John

[maineman]

I live in Maine and am developing a winter haven in West Texas. My wife and I have just retired and next winter will be our first winter there....Our place is in Terlingua, a place metioned in Rain Gods. Alpine, a town about 55 miles north of Terlingua, is mentioned in Feast Days. Mr. Burke completely captures the magic that is West Texas. To answer your question, I believe the fictious town is somewhere between Big Bend and Del Rio.

My question to Mr. Burke is how much time have you spent in West Texas?

Sincerely,

Steve Beam

[maineman]

I live in Maine and am developing a winter haven in West Texas. My wife and I have just retired and next winter will be our first winter there....Our place is in Terlingua, a place metioned in Rain Gods. Alpine, a town about 55 miles north of Terlingua, is mentioned in Feast Days. Mr. Burke completely captures the magic that is West Texas. To answer your question, I believe the fictious town is somewhere between Big Bend and Del Rio.

My question to Mr. Burke is how much time have you spent in West Texas?

Sincerely,

Steve Beam

[spysgrandson]

Have spent lots of time in west Texas and yes, he does capture the magic of that part of the world superbly (With some poetic license for the amount of precipitation--it never rains that much except for about one week in July!). As far as location, Alpine, Marfa, or even Sanderson (the smallest of the three) might fit the bill. Marathon is mentioned in Rain Gods as being down the road from where Hack lives. Of course, the town is imaginery, but any town in that part of the state that would be a county seat could be the theoretical location of Hack's jail and office.

[leoauthor1970]

Regardless of the size of any town, a county (or in Louisiana, a parish) will always have a sheriff. There's often a lot of confusion in terms. A sheriff is over an entire county, and is employed by the county, not the city. This is one of my pet peeves in movies and some books; sheriffs do NOT answer to a mayor, period. Mayors are elected to run cities, or towns. They have no authority over a sheriff, whatsoever, as the sheriff is of the county (or parish), not the city.

So, even if it's a miniscule village of 25 people, it may not have a police department, or chief of police, but there will be a sheriff, to provide law enforcement services to the entire rest of the county that particular village sits in. In Missouri, state statutes mandate that each county have a sheriff, who is in charge of a jail, civil paper service, in some cases tax collection, etc. Though I can't say definitively, I believe it's the same in every state.

There is no corresponding mandate for a police force, or chief of police. So, if a county has 18 small towns in it, none of them big enough for their own police departments or chiefs of police, there WILL still be a sheriff (and respective sheriff's agency) servicing the county, to include those small towns contained therein.

Did I vague that up enough for you?