“Far From Uncertain: One Woman’s Life of Crime & Other Righteous Deeds” by Teddy Jones

Selfless nurse, defender of the vulnerable, and murderous addict—can one be all of these? Far From Uncertain: One Woman’s Life of Crime and Other Righteous Deeds jumps right smack dab into the life of Margaret Kenyon and keeps you and cub reporter, Charles Bailey, running through her story at a breathless pace. The tale drags the reader – and Charles – through what people did to survive during the Great Depression, Prohibition, the Dust Bowl and the Oil Boom of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s.

As it begins in 2000, Charles has been sent to interview Margaret, a ninety-year-old nurse who is still practicing in the Panhandle of Texas. Like many younger folks, Charles starts out curious what anyone older than boomer-age could possibly share that would interest others. Yet Margaret’s tale deeply influences the next phases of his life.

She shows readers through her story-within-a-story how someone can be righteous yet immoral, vengeful yet compassionate at the same time. Before Margaret tells Charles her own story, she insists he must know the story of Frankie. At fifteen, Frankie ran from an abusive home with nothing but her wits and a gambler’s promise of escape. What she found was a world of speakeasies, bootlegging, and survival on the edge of the law.

Author Teddy Jones has you feeling all the feels as she takes you through a young girl’s survival against seemingly insurmountable odds. Now, decades later, Frankie’s story is ready to be told, a story of grit and defiance, a woman who refused to be broken. The action, descriptions, and characters are so lifelike that it’s almost like the Taylor Sheridan Yellowstone prequels with Elsa Dutton narrating both 1883 and 1923.

The author’s use of a journalist interview provides a reflective lens in which the gritty historic fictional tale of Frankie can be understood more fully.

A teenage girl whose looks draw attention, Frankie was first abused by her brothers, while she observed the life of abuse her mother suffered at the hands of her father. Frankie had her mind set on something better. Then, she found herself “rescued” by a bootlegging gambler and, ultimately, driven by desires to survive, get revenge, and protect others. Yet it is difficult to leave the past behind. After her abuser is gone, Frankie explains, “She remembered feeling empty. Spending so much time detesting him, then he was gone. She missed having him to hate.”

Far From Uncertain: One Woman’s Life of Crime and Other Righteous Deeds details the harsh realities and culture of the flapper girls, gaiety, and jazz of the Roaring 20’s and the will to survive the depression of the 1930’s.

Margaret’s recounting of Frankie’s tale reveals hidden histories, fierce courage, and second chances formed from hardship. These challenges demonstrated how a person can be a selfless nurse, defender of the vulnerable, and a murderous addict in one lifetime.

Teddy Jones

Teddy Jones has worked as a nurse, nurse practitioner, university professor, college dean, occasional farmhand, and now she writes fiction. She grew up in a small north Texas town, Iowa Park, and gained college degrees in nursing at Incarnate Word and University of Texas and a Ph.D. in Education at University of Texas at Austin. Prior to devoting her work to fiction, she wrote a monthly column for The Farmer Stockman , a farm magazine. She co-authored 100 Doses, a book of essays for rural women and A Stone for Every Journey, a biographical novel. She also is the author of Left Early, Arrived Late, a biography. She received the Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Spalding University, Louisville, KY. Short stories by Jones have been published in 94 Creations, RealSouth Magazine, and Persimmon Tree. Her work has been short-listed for finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom competition in 2011, 2012, and 2013, plus finalist in that competition in 2014. In 2015, she received the first prize in that competition for a short story, “Clean Getaway.” She is the author of Halfwide, Jackson’s Pond, Well Tended, Slanted Light, Making it Home, Marva Cope and A Family of Good Women.