Hunting the Red Fox

By: W. Kenneth Tyler, Jr.
Publisher: The Peppertree Press
Publication Date: February 11, 2025
ISBN: 978-1965950050
Reviewed by: Douglas C. MacLeod, Jr.
Review Date: April 10, 2025

W. Kenneth Tyler’s debut novel Hunting the Red Fox primarily consists of what has been called by some as “a tale as old as time” from the standpoint of a shady, dying, professional spinner of yarns and competitive golfer, Perry Barnes, and his hapless pseudo-biographer, Roger Mace. The aforementioned tale is Perry’s last jewel heist, which was the stealing of the close-to-two-hundred carat Mecklenburg Diamond, back in 1957. Reminiscent of a 1940s film noir, where much of the narrative is told in flashback and Perry has the cadence of an old-timey ne’er-do-well from prior decades, the author produces a story that has a great deal of potential and appeal.

Hunting the Red Fox begins with an ever-so-familiar voice-over from Roger, who makes it known to his readers he was “about to embark on a book project, in which I was going to attempt to document interesting stories from ordinary people who have done fascinating-even extraordinary things” (2). While sitting down for lunch at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg, Virginia, by happenstance, like with some Alfred Hitchcock suspense-thrillers (for example, Strangers on a Train), Roger overhears a group of older gentlemen having a spirited conversation at an adjacent table. It is this chance meeting that leads the rather benign and skittish Roger on a figurative walk down memory lane with Perry, who learns to trust Roger with his deepest, darkest secret soon after a round of golf.

Perry’s narrative starts like most, from the beginning, with readers learning that Perry was born in Blackwater, Georgia in May of 1924 to working class but poor parents just trying to survive in a rural, peach-farming town prior to and during the Depression. Perry’s father, Harry, died violently when Perry was quite young, so Perry had to fend for himself, even though he was raised by his French grandmother, who survived multiple skirmishes and, ultimately, World War I. To get by, Perry would steal fruit and bread, which then “escalated into bigger and better things, still nominal in value” (29), which then led to jewels from a local jewelry store owner, which led to him getting caught and sentenced to “a stint in the Specially Trained Operations (STO) unit of the Army of the United States…for as long as the army deems necessary” (37). Much of the second part of Tyler’s novel is about Perry’s time in the Army, when he went through basic training, met an interesting cast of characters while in his troop, killed some enemy soldiers, and met Winston Churchill.

The rest of Hunting the Red Fox chronicles Perry as a courageous soldier while also becoming a professional golfer, who, much to Roger’s chagrin, happened to play in the Durham Open in 1945, whilst in the throes of war. After World War II, Perry toured around the world, found God after some self-assessment, had passionate long-lasting love affairs and eventually met his significant other, met stars like Elvis Presley, Jackie Gleason, and Dean Martin, became known as “The Red Fox,” and developed into an effective working entertainer and thief who heisted the Mecklenburg Diamond from a known gangster for the sake of love. By the time readers get to final scenes of Tyler’s novel, they recognize that the Mecklenburg Diamond is the MacGuffin, the object of desire that is not as significant as the romantic story surrounding the heist.

Quill says: Tyler’s debut novel Hunting the Red Fox has potential as a noir thriller, complete with a wide variety of intriguing characters, humor and romance.