Slow Dancing On Dinosaur Bones by Lana Witt

From the Publisher

Step into Lee's Machine Shop and meet Gilman Lee, infamous for his blues guitar, bootleg whiskey, and lovemaking. If you're a friend, he'll roll out the good times. If you're an enemy, he'll bite your ears off. Gilman dazzles nearly everyone except Gemma Collet, a cynical young woman who wrote her own ten commandments and follows them. Why, suddenly, is the whole world knocking on the door of Pick, Kentucky? It's in a county so remote that there are no craft shops, yogurt huts, or fast-food restaurants. Entering the region is like being swallowed by a living thing: a dinosaur or some other prehistoric animal that has evolved into a geographical area for reasons of self-preservation. Sent inland by the ocean's waves, Tom Jett, a philosopher from California, lands in Pick when his car breaks down. Frank Denton sneaks into town, bringing his grim search for Rosalie Wilson, one of Pick's own, a woman blessed with green eyes and a torch singer's voice. Meanwhile, the Conroy Coal Company is there to do what it's done since time immemorial - persuade people to sign coal leases that seldom pay off.

Publishers Weekly

Rich characterization and black humor with a thick Southern accent distinguish Witt's irresistible debut novel. Tom Jett, freshly equipped with a degree in philosophy, has left California for the open road. After three months of traveling, his Toyota breaks down outside Pick, Ky., a three-street mountain town that is being bought up by the Conroy Coal Company. Gilman Lee, Pick's premier mechanic, bootlegger, lover and musician, offers to put Tom up in a rundown cabin; in exchange, Tom is to keep a lookout for Conroy Coal augers trying to burrow under Gilman's land in search of new deposits. But Gilman hasn't told Tom that he keeps the skeleton of his best friend, Zack-upright in a chair, cigarette in hand-in the old smokehouse near the cabin. The odd nature of the town becomes clearest to Tom, however, when he spots Gemma Collet sitting naked in a nearby creek, covering herself with mud. Gemma, he learns, has ``been mad ever since she turned white''-i.e., contracted vitilego-at age 18. Gemma and Tom's romance makes cautious progress until Rosalie Wilson, Gilman's great lost love, returns from Florida, on the run from her rich but homicidal lover. Witt's talent, big and pleasingly quirky, marks her as a fresh new voice. (Feb.)

Library Journal

When the folks at the machine shop society in eastern Pick, Kentucky, wage war against a coal company, unadulterated havoc erupts. Each bedeviled by a special loss and inspired by the love of drink and music, the citizens of Pick engage in murder, make love, and live troubled lives puntuated with humor. There's Ten-fifteen, "who was born with arms that stick out from his sides like the hands of a clock." His best friend is Gilman Lee, a blues musician mechanic, who conspires to eliminate the coal company. Tom Jett, a California philosopher, is just plain lost and seeks the right mountain range to call home. Gemma, milkshake white from a skin disease, is feisty, hell-bent, and incapable of deciding whom she loves more, Tom or Gilman Lee. In a clever first novel, Witt, a native Kentuckian, presents a high-spirited work replete with romance, suspense, and fascinating eccentrics. Highly recommended for avid readers.-Mary Ellen Elsbernd, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Joan Hinkemeyer

"Southern storytelling is at its best in Lina Witt's new novel....As in the best traditions of classical drama, the characters complement and balance each other with an almost Shakesperean richness and oridinariness."-- Rocky Mountain News

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