So the premise of Smoke is that two sons of the south, Jay Carnihan and his novelist-and-lifelong friend, Pace Burnette, kidnap the scion of the Monster Mart chain of convenience stores, Rayford Holly. Jay’s family owns Hometown Family Goods in Smoke, Louisiana, a town with an empty downtown business district that has been victimized by Monster Mart. Published in 1994, Smoke addresses an issue of the time, the Walmartization of America. But there’s a lot more to the story than that.

The first sentence portends what’s coming. Told from Pace’s point of view: “Where I come from, you hear a lot of stories – some of them actually true.” Pace proceeds to draw out a lovely, memorable and warm story, of which the actual kidnapping is a small, almost innocent part.

After some twists, some turns, and many pleasing moments, one of the final sentences sums it all up. “If you planned on things going one way, count on them going the other.” That seems to be John Ed Bradley’s method for advancing the plot – by taking what you’d expect to happen in many situations – and turning it into something unexpected.

Smoke is a gem of a story I recently found in a used book store. I gather it wasn’t a best-seller, but should have been. ( )