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Thomas Clayton
Thomas Clayton
Thomas Clayton
Ebook682 pages10 hours

Thomas Clayton

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Thomas Clayton Gurley loses his mother, father, and sister to a tragic car accident when he is only fifteen. With no family to care for him, hes forced to live with the dreaded Bastard Boats, his fathers half brother. Boats seems to have a vendetta against young T. C., and it goes back to T. C.s parents, although T. C. isnt sure why.

In a new town, at a new school, under a hostile roof, T. C. has to fight to survive. He joins up with the high school football team just to get out of the house. He makes friends and begins to experience new thingsnotably drugs, music, and girls. All the time, though, Boats is on his back. Theres a light at the end of the tunnel when T. C. is taken in by Buck and Rosie Hagan, a local foreman and his wife.

Even so, T. C. is haunted by the loss of his family and the oppressive Boats. Something criminal is going down in their tiny Oklahoma town, and Boats is at the center of it. As T. C. grows into a man, he begins to realize the danger Boats could bring upon the Hagans and T. C.s group of friends. Boatss involvement with a corrupt business cartel could cost lives, and T. C.once an innocentwill have to stand strong to protect the people he has come to love.

LanguageEnglish
PublisheriUniverse
Release dateJan 17, 2013
ISBN9781475969252
Thomas Clayton
Author

Randy J. Harvey

Randy J. Harvey has a PhD from the University of Oregon and is the 2004 World Champion of Public Speaking for Toastmasters International. He has traveled internationally while teaching public speaking and has published two books on the subject. He is married with three grown children. Thomas Clayton is based on the beginnings of a story written by Dr. Harvey’s father, Jay L. Harvey.

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Twists and turns kept me interested and I ended up reading the book in no time. The second half of the book was especially interesting and I couldn't wait for the resolution.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When 15-year-old Thomas Clayton Gurley’s parents and sister are killed in an auto crash in Florida, he is sent to live with his father’s half-brother, Boats, in Tishomingo, Oklahoma. Thomas and Boats take an instant dislike to each other, and the boy is sent to live with Buck Hagen, a foreman at the oil rigging company that Boats owns. It is while living with Hagen and his family that Thomas begins to regain a sense of family – and self.It is also here that his troubles truly begin. In a new high school, he has to prove himself to Boats and to a murderous rival for the affections of Mar, the first girl he’s ever had a relationship with. As Thomas matures, he finds himself in a fight literally for his life, and the lives of those he has come to love, when the questionable relationships Boats has forged with shady politicians and business people comes to light.Thomas Clayton, by Randy J. Harvey, PhD, is a story that grew out of a few dozen handwritten pages begun by Harvey’s father, Jay L. Harvey, and is dedicated to the story tellers of the Harvey clan, who ‘never let the truth get in the way of a good story.’ Though the author’s disclaimer says that this is a work of fiction, and in no way represents real people, this tightly woven tale of greed, jealousy, and murder could very well have been ripped from the headlines of any daily newspaper. Gripping, realistic dialogue and intricate descriptions of places, events, and people; some told from the first-person viewpoint of young Thomas, and others in the third person, as characters and events sweep past in a torrent of emotion, will have you believing that it is a documentary, rather than what it is – a grand tale told in a masterful style. The truth, in this book, doesn’t get in the way of a good story, but, by gum, you’ll close it after the last page and swear you just read the God’s honest truth. I read a copy which was provided to me for review, but by jingies, I’d be more than willing to plunk down some hard-earned money for a chance to read it, and I, for one, hope this won’t be Randy Harvey’s last offering.

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Thomas Clayton - Randy J. Harvey

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