Devreaux's Appointment

is the fictionalized account of an impressionable, star-crossed lad coming of age in tiny Bristow, Arkansas, graduating from The University of Arkansas, attaining a degree from Candler School of Theology, and aspiring for a ministerial “appointment” in Arkansas from the Methodist bishop. Bristow is where he learned to ‘figure,’ process unpleasantries, and … was abducted. The University of Arkansas is where he excelled academically, married his campus sweetheart, and … survived the initial attempt upon his life by an unknown assassin. Georgia is where he served a student ministerial “appointment” in rural Greene County, resisted the wiles of a skirt-tugging parishioner, survived a near fatal automobile wreck precipitated by an ambitious small town constable, navigated through numerous personality conflicts of parishioners, and narrowly avoided a cleverly calculated scheme by the anonymous assassin. Arkansas is the setting for Deveaux’s initial “appointments” while awaiting the elusive “promotion.” Interesting personalities abound: an enigmatic district superintendent, the church member in charge of porno films shown at the fire department, the “unpredictable” church organist, and the unknown assassin. The salient significance of the book’s title is discovered in the LAST line of the text.