The Woods Colt A Novel of the Ozarks Hills

"As for the stereotypical characters, they rang true to me, much truer than the Arcadian hillfolk in The Shepherd of the Hills. The characters talk funny and make a lot of moonshine, but mostly they hate and love and scheme. The grannies are perhaps the most obvious stereotypes. The two young women, while narrowly drawn, ring true, and so does violent Clint. ... The novel holds up because of the powerful story. To cite movies, it's the plot of High Sierra, First Blood, and dozens of Westerns and adventure stories. A man alone, a man on the run, a man whose time has run out. Thank you, Phillip Howerton, and thank you, Arkansas, for bringing this great old yarn back to us."-John Mort, Down Along the Piney, February 2023

"The Woods Colt is an intriguing addition to the Ozarks literary bookshelf, filled with intense action, raw emotions, and thick dialect. Anyone with an interest in Ozarks writing, American naturalism, or regional movements in American literature will find this book valuable. And the critical introduction by Phillip Howerton is a marvelously informative guide into the world of this novel and its creator."-Steve Wiegenstein, author of Scattered Lights