The Vigil

By Clay Reynolds

Book Overview

Fleeing Atlanta and an emotionally abusive marriage, Imogene McBride is heading west with her precocious, beautiful teenage daughter, Cora, when their car breaks down in the tiny North Texas town of Agatite. While her mother sits out its repair on a bench on the courthouse lawn, Cora wanders off to buy ice cream, enters a drugstore--and disappears without a trace. Initially, believing Cora is playing a prank, an agitated Imma storms the drugstore and then the sheriff's office demanding answers. When answers don't come, she returns to the park bench to wait, her annoyance turning to fear, and then obsession. So begins Imma's vigil and the classic first novel of Reynolds's Sandhill Chronicles, a timeless testament to place and character. As her waiting stretches from days and weeks into years, Imma becomes--as the town eccentric if not madwoman--a pivotal institution in Agatite and the lives of its inhabitants. Most affected by Imma's obsession is Sheriff Ezra Holmes, a widower who has kept his emotional life in check since the death of his beloved wife. Now his controlled life is disrupted by the woman on the bench, whose presence compels and arouses Ezra in ways mysterious even to himself. As he works to unravel the mystery of Cora's disappearance, a bond develops between the aging sheriff and the eccentric woman who brings Ezra both new hope and forces him to confront his own pain. An absorbing blend of mystery, psychological thriller, and character study, this tale of one woman's obsession and the spell it casts is utterly unforgettable. An] engrossing first novel. Reynolds] knows how to create and sustain tension without resorting to sensationalism. His book, like its protagonist, has a stubborn integrity that you can't help admiring. Imma's] metamorphosis . . . is absorbing. --New York Times

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0896724573
• ISBN13: 9780896724570
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
• Length: 221 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Loss, love, and life

At first glance, this is a simple story about a strange woman who sits on a park bench for the better part of 30 years waiting for her vanished daughter to return. But the simplicity is deceptive, and the characters are very complex. They deal with loss, love, and life much as we all do-with whatever meager skills and limited knowledge they have at their disposal.When we first meet Imogene, she has taken control of her life. She has left her philandering husband and set out with her 18-year-old daughter, Cora, to drive from Atlanta to her sister's house in Oregon. But, the illusion of control doesn't last long. In a small Texas town, their car breaks down. As Imogene sits on a park bench outside the Agatite courthouse, waiting for the car to be repaired, Cora walks across the street to buy ice cream at the drug store, and vanishes without a trace.Confused and devastated, Imogene begins her vigil on the bench, believing, as she must, that Cora will return. With her life turned upside down, she grasps for whatever stability she can find and continues her vigil long past the point that most other people would have given up hope. The bench becomes her home and the vigil becomes her life. Cora's disappearance is investigated by Sheriff Ezra Holmes, who is dealing with the loss of his beloved wife, and later, as a result of his investigation, the loss of his best friend. Over time, Imogene and Ezra, buffeted if not battered by life, develop a deep understanding and a comfortable affection for one another, and the sheriff even realizes that he loves Imogene. Imogene never feels that she has wasted her life waiting on the bench. On the contrary, she comes to understand that this is what was meant to be, and she is grateful that she was able to find a sense of belonging in Agatite.Strong characterizations and well-paced suspense make this a very readable book. It is at once a mystery and a love story as it explores how people choose to react to, and learn to cope with, the circumstances life hands them.

Romance and mystery tied together

In a beautiful and deceptive way, Reynolds uses the disappearance of a daughter to introduce the reader into a world that is moved, disrupted and changed by the human heart. By the end of the story, it didn't even matter what happened to the daughter. I only had room in my heart for Ezra the sheriff, Imma the strange mother taking vigil on the courthouse bench, and the haunting yet silent love between the two. And Imma losing her daughter only to find her purpose in life . . . storytelling at its finest!