White Gold, by Michael E. Jimerson

White Gold is a captivating modern Texas tale.

Texas is most likely the only place in the world where the story in White Gold could take place. The backdrop is the oil business, which in the novel is dirty in more ways than one. And the characters on one level are so prototypically Texan as to be parodic, from a corrupt police chief named B.B., his son called “Son,” a slick con woman named Widow Welchel, a virtuous woman Texas Ranger called Cooper, and, finally, a very rich big oil company owner, Rex Ashe. And we haven’t even got to the hero yet, and all the other rococo characters who fuel the plot.

E.J. is the hero of the novel, but he is far from perfect, being a washed out Texas Ranger who has turned to a private security job with Rex Ashe. And he’s a bit of a tortured soul who suffers an almost debilitating remorse on account of a wife, Rebecca, who left him, a son killed in Afghanistan, and a drug addicted daughter, Sharla. On account of this background and a long list of torments, he is not exactly on his game, and in the novel he struggles mightily to keep his life together, including a botched undercover operation, a failure at first to detect Widow Welchel’s deviousness, and a rescue operation that escalates into a gun battle. And Jimerson has done such a brilliant job of making a real person out of E.J., a man whom a reader cannot help but get behind him and cheer his efforts, despite his stumbles. This talent for character development was displayed in the author’s first novel, Where No Man Pursueth, and is magnificently expanded in White Gold. The employment of so many characters in White Gold, as well as their frailties and some questionable moral decisions, is reminiscent of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. Sometimes it’s a minor character that strikes a chord, like McMurtry’s Wilbarger in that novel. In White Gold, such a character is Son, one whom a reader first sees as despicable, but many pages later becomes a somewhat endearing fellow, as far as deputy sheriffs go. Thankfully, he doesn’t meet the same end as Wilbarger.

Despite a pickup truck full of characters coming and going in different directions, Jimerson expertly keeps the plot paced toward a reckoning. But the plot is not so much driven by action as it is by realization. A reader can easily miss the jury’s verdict but certainly won’t miss the family therapy session with Sharla. For E.J. there’s comfort in finding “shades of gray.” Black and white won’t ever work for him, just like most things in Texas nowadays aren’t always cut and dried. But one thing for certain is that E.J.’s adventure is a beautifully crafted modern Texas tale.

For more about Michael E. Jimerson, visit his website at https://michealjimerson.com