July 31, 2016
Linda Carter Brinson, reviewing “Winning Texas” in the Greensboro News & Record, praises new “maturity” in the writer’s work, with dialogue that is “more believable.” Read the review here. Cached here.
“Whether you’re a six-footer or you top off at five feet, ["Tall"] is a reminder that how you measure yourself is more of a determiner of your success and well-being than any measure on a yardstick.”
– Judy Goldman
. . . . .
“Nancy Stancill takes readers on a grand adventure, from her early life as a painfully shy, 6-foot teenager, to a kickass reporter who learned that height can be power.”
– Cindy Montgomery
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Texas can be a mighty dangerous place
Published 12:00 am Sunday, July 31, 2016
“Winning Texas,” by Nancy Stancil. Black Rose Writing. 2016. 226 pp. $16.95.
By Deirdre Parker Smith
In the season of beach reads, former Charlotte Observer journalist Nancy Stancill has a new, short novel that’s got intrigue, romance, shady characters and several puzzles.
Stancill revisits reporter Annie Price from her first book, “Saving Texas,” which was about Texas secession and a determined group that would do anything to make the country of Texas a reality.
Now the issue is to declare certain counties German Texas in a nod to the heritage of the area. The idea is to teach German in schools, have signs in German, promote festivals, etc.
The subplot is about the dying newspaper industry. Annie is now a mid-level editor at the Houston newspaper, which, during the course of the book, loses two reporters, one who quits and the other …
The baddest guys from the first book have escaped to Mexico — Dan Riggins, the secessionist leader, and his girlfriend, contract killer Alicia Perez.
Annie also has to deal with ex-reporter Rob Ryland who just about killed her in her last adventure.
But that’s only part of it. Annie’s in charge of an investigative team which is trying to learn about the German Texas movement. They meet Sen. Sam Wurtzbach, a nice guy who wants recognition for his part of Texas. It seems innocent enough, but after the explosive secessionist crowd, everyone’s feeling a little suspicious.
And it’s with good reason. The effort arouses the interest of Riggins, so much so that he is willing to cross back into Texas, risking arrest, to do something about it.
He’s relying on his nephew, who happens to be the ex-reporter, and old friend Tom Marr to help him out. But Marr’s had it. He is out of the secession business and trying to raise his teen-age daughter, Betsy, by himself. And that branches off into another subplot involving strip clubs, which brings us back to the German Texas movement and Riggins.
The book starts with a body floating in the shipping channel at Houston’s port, but that, too, is another subplot which ties in strip clubs, human trafficking, German Texas and murder.
That’s a lot of balls to juggle. Stancill adds in not one, but three love interests for Annie: Her former lover Sen. Jake Satterfield, who returned to his pregnant wife after romancing Annie; Marr, who has held a candle for Annie ever since she connected with the child Betsy; and a recently divorced deputy. Marr and Satterfield actually competed for Annie in the past.
The deputy is merely a distraction or a character placed to prove Annie has poor judgment when it comes to men.
Meanwhile, back at the newspaper … new owners are coming in to change everything and every job is at risk.
Somehow, Annie must help one of her investigative reporters unravel the strip club/German Texas connection, find out if Riggins and his deadly girlfriend are back in action, track down the people in charge of the human trafficking and be available to a runaway Betsy.
Annie and her team face a plethora of danger, risking their lives for the truth, such as it is. The body in the water gets short shrift, probably because so much else is going on. And poor Annie is injured, threatened, dumped and likely to be unemployed.
At the end, things are not exactly rosy for all involved, with betrayals left and right, but it’s wide open for a sequel. Will Annie survive another run-in with a group of dangerous and determined characters? Will she even have a job as a reporter? She’s narrowed down her choice of men, but that could change, too.
Stancill has also been a reporter for the Houston Chronicle and has an MFA in creative writing. The grittiness of Houston inspires the first two books, and likely more.
An interesting note: The cover of “Winning Texas” is based on the same photo used on the cover of “Saving Texas.” The clouds and sky are the same, and a road runs right down the middle.
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http://www.greensboro.com/go_triad/arts/books/review-winning-texas-shows-maturity-in-its-author/article_d82ce890-8b8e-5088-812c-fa980c7d71be.html
Review: ‘Winning Texas’ shows maturity in its author
Posted: Sunday, July 31, 2016 12:00 am
By Linda Carter Brinson
Special to the News & Record
In real world time, it’s been two years since Nancy Stancill’s first thriller, “Saving Texas,” appeared on the scene. But in book time, it’s been four years, and Stancill’s heroine, Annie Price, has faced changes and setbacks.
As Stancill’s new book, “Winning Texas,” opens, the newspaper business is in even worse straits than it was before. Annie is working as an assistant metro editor because her beloved job as an investigative reporter has been eliminated. The newspaper is so short on staff, however, that she sometimes gets to help cover a story, an opportunity she relishes. Like everyone else on the staff, she lives with the constant threat of being “downsized,” a prospect that appears more imminent as the story progresses.
Her personal life is not faring much better. As the previous book came to its dramatic conclusion, her longtime relationship and her newer romantic interest both ran into major problems. At 40, Annie is wary about getting involved with someone new or picking up where she left off with anyone from her past. But sometimes she’s tempted.
In the greater world, many things remain much the same, however. Houston, where Annie works for the only daily newspaper, is still a gritty city, And Annie and the reporters who answer to her often see the worst it has to offer — an unidentified body in the ship channel, topless clubs that push the limits of lax laws, even human trafficking. All of Texas, really, is still a rough, sometimes violent place. Annie was instrumental in helping to thwart the secessionist movement four years earlier, but there are signs that its ringleaders have not given up their goals, and that they are still dangerous.
Meanwhile, the German Texas movement is gaining momentum. The idea is to enhance and capitalize on the strong German heritage in the Texas hill country in an effort to draw tourists and stimulate the economy. As the story progresses, it becomes evident that the secessionists take a dim view of the German Texas movement and pose a threat to its members. Annie and one of her reporters are at a German Texas fundraiser when the threat becomes all too real.
Two dramatic murders propel the action, and one hits very close to home: A young reporter who works with Annie is killed in the parking lot of a strip club he’s investigating.
Stancill, who moved to Charlotte after losing her real-world investigative reporting job in Houston, has written a sequel to her first thriller that provides a fast-moving plot and plenty of action. She writes in third person, shifting the point of view among various leading characters.
This second book shows some maturity in her as a writer: The dialogue is more believable, and Annie is a little more discriminating in her romantic dealings with men.
Stancill continues to paint a realistic, if depressing, picture of the state of the newspaper industry, and she doesn’t hesitate to portray some of the contemporary problems and tensions in Texas.
“Missing Texas” also has fewer editing lapses than the first book, although there is a confusing passage in which Sunday morning somehow becomes Saturday morning.
As she did at the end of “Saving Texas,” Stancill leaves us with the strong suggestion that Annie Price has more adventures ahead of her in another book in the Texas series. It would be interesting if, now that she lives in North Carolina, Stancill would try her hand at a thriller that delves into the darker side of this state. Maybe if Annie is downsized in Houston, she’ll find a new job at a newspaper in Charlotte or, say, Greensboro.
Linda Carter Brinson writes a books blog, Briar Patch Books (lindabrinson.com) and lives in Stokes County near Madison.
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