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Calling 
 by Joe Samuel StarnesJefferson Press$24.95 by Tim W. Brown
Calling 
, the debut novel by Joe Samuel Starnes (note the quintessentially Southerntripartite name), presents the stories of two men on opposite trajectories. They meet on aGreyhound heading from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City -- from a city founded on sin to a cityfounded on redemption.Timber Goodman tries hard to ignore the drunk and disheveled Rev. Zeke Blizzard, who boards the bus in the middle of the desert. But the insistent Zeke sidles up to Timber, shares slugsfrom his bottle, and tells his life story in the style of a crazed sermon.We learn that he truly is a Baptist minister who has fallen hard. After a poor upbringingfollowed by a series of lucky breaks, he attends Bible college and quickly takes the helm of asolid, stable church in Georgia. He spends twenty uneventful years until boredom (and the Devil)takes over. In heavy disguise he robs a slew of banks across the Southeast. Then he seduces a parishioner, the daughter of the local Sheriff, who discovers them going at it in Zeke's backseat.He skips town before the scandal breaks, abandoning his family and taking his bank haul withhim.When it's Timber's turn to speak, the reader learns he is a radio DJ originally fromSouthwest Louisiana. The owner of a radio station, his father brings Timber into the business at ayoung age. Timber rises through the radio ranks until he reaches the pinnacle of his career in thenumber four market of Houston, Texas. He takes full advantage of every perquisite available,
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