By Forrest Preece
“Austin Blues” by Gary A. Keith
Gary A. Keith’s debut novel, Austin Blues, provides a hard-edged, but sometimes humorous, romp through politics, scandals, and memory-inspiring times in Austin. His main character Sandy Eden comes back from Vietnam tortured by mental scars and a knee injury from a Cobra helicopter crash. Summoning up grit, he enrolls at Texas Tech, then earns a degree at UT Law School and opens his legal office. At first, he’s rocking along, handling routine cases and hanging out in the music venues of the Capital City. Suddenly, a personal injury case involving a driver for a local business and a woman who is permanently traumatized by the accident falls into his lap. The Austin press snags onto the case, making it a cause célèbre. Sandy ratchets up his legal skills, does some dogged investigative work, and creates a reputation for himself.
After resolving that high-profile case, he has more potential clients than he can accept. Suddenly, a whistleblower accusation involving the top levels of the state government comes Sandy’s way when the wronged party asks him for representation. It’s a “case of all cases,” and the reader rides along through the dense patch of high intrigue, money shuffled into the wrong pockets, and out-of-control, ethically challenged state office holders. Plenty of nighttime activities take place as well, with Sandy and his friends gathering in local drinking establishments to hash out politics and explore the intricacies of law. There’s even a bar fight involving the protagonist, which stirs the plot some more.
Besides Sandy, there’s his wife Dr. Bev Denton, a UT professor, who he meets at Antone’s; their pal “Dude” John Dewey, a bass player who studied music at the University of North Texas; and Dean Keaton, his law firm’s client who is caught up in political backstabbing and intrigue. All of them figure in subplots throughout the book, lending a fast pace to the action.
Keith writes with a flair for dialogue, precise scene description, insight into the local music scene, and lots of inner knowledge of academia and state politics. On that score, Keith has been a lecturer, a college professor, and a senior policy analyst, so he knows whereof he speaks. He also wrote a nonfiction book about Bob Eckhardt-- “Eckhardt: There Once Was a Congressman From Texas.”
No spoilers about the ending, but “Austin Blues” weaves the worlds of politics, press, and UT academia into a tale of intrigue with plenty of twists and turns. It’s an entertaining read that will take you back to the days of yesteryear in our town.
