Footfalls on the Trembling Earth by Buck Brinson
Columbia resident Buck Brinson grew up in southern Georgia, near the waterways and woods around river systems that create the geography for a perfect mystery novel. He has been writing short stories for many years simply for his own personal relaxation and enjoyment. Now Brinson has brought together many of these short stories together in his first published novel, Footfalls on the Trembling Earth. Footfalls on Trembling Earth is a murder mystery set in the fictional town of Hite’s Corner near the nonfictional landforms of the Okefenokee Swamp, located on the border of southern Georgia and Florida. Brinson describes the Okefenokee Swamp as follows: “This site is a vast bog that was laid down in a saucer-shaped depression carved by an ancient sea. At its bottom is a clay pan that seals in the peat that forms above. Peat if not firm and can vibrate in reaction to forces stepping upon it.
Okefenokee is the European pronunciation of a Seminole Indian expression, Land of the Trembling Earth, which describes the feeling as one moves across the surface. Trees wobble when it thunders. The Okefenokee is life is like no other place on earth.”
Location is particularly important in Brinson’s writing. However, character development is his favorite part of the writing process. He says his characters are a combination of people he has known in his life, people who live in the region he grew up in, and personality traits he has observed in others during his lifetime. As the novel unfolds, the reader gains more insight into not just the source of the mystery but also into the development of the people who are Brinson’s characters. Some characters will endear you and some will scare you.
Footfalls on Trembling Earth is written in chapters which often stand alone in time and location. Some chapters are unique short stories Brinson has written in the past. The plot of the novel, however, pits brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor in the worst of murder mysteries. Brinson challenges his readers and his characters who serve on the good side of law enforcement to experience repeated killings, some random and some almost predictable from the known anger between longstanding enemies in this southern town. There are feelings of horror, shock, grief, and determination to find the mystery killer and stop the horrible events that happen during one summer in Hite’s Corner.
Brinson’s shares, “I am a naturalist. In nature there is a lot of killing going on.”
He says the natural world at its base level is a struggle to survive. In Footfalls on Trembling Earth, Brinson places his characters, human beings, into the life and death battles of the natural world. The following summary shows the forces at work the author sees as he writes, “It’s the summer of 1967: a heat wave is scorching South Georgia, the Viet Nam conflict is using up people, and evil has crept into Beaumont County. Zac Caudell and Boone Russell are caught flat-footed and swept up in this onslaught. They watch helplessly as their world gets torn to pieces. What they face does not recognize the Laws of Nature or obey the Laws of Man. It has disdain for the Laws of God. And the two are left with one alternative: fight back.”
Footfalls on Trembling Earth can be purchased in print or on Kindle from www.amazon.com. Follow Buck Brinson at www.buckbrinson.com.
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