Fast Copy: A Novel

In 1935 Betsy Throckmorton's father lures her back to Claybelle, Texas, with the promise that she can be the editor of his Claybelle Standard-Times. Betsy brings along her husband, Ted Winton, an easterner and Yale graduate who will run Ben Throckmorton's radio station, KVAT. In Texas, it's the middle of the Depression and the Drought. And Prohibition is barely over, liquor still a controversy. But it is also the time of new oil money, high living, infidelity, and tangled love triangles. Betsy is a serious journalist though, and her journalistic determination leads to a personal tragedy that changes her life forever - and makes her a determined relentless newswoman.
Fast Copy is a page-turner that combines romantic comedy with the best of the thriller genre. But it's much more. Dan Jenkins captures Texas in the mid-1930s with a clarity that brings it alive, and his affection for Texas, Fort Worth, and TCU are revealed on every page. Only a native like Jenkins would include the minute details of a TCU/SMU game, the new Zephr stainless steel railroad train, the T&P Railroad station, the Fort Worth Cats, and LeGrave Field. His portrait of Claybelle and its leading society folks is tongue-in-cheek funny and right on the mark. Texans should treasure this book for years to come.