Author Troy Carnes says he’s thrilled to return to Greenwood to promote his new book.
Now residing in Nashville, the 1978 Pillow Academy graduate and former Pillow basketball coach recently released the historical fiction novel “Dudgeons and Daggers.” A book signing and reception featuring Carnes will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Turnrow Books.
“I’m thrilled about the chance to come back and see good friends, and to do it in a setting like this is even more exciting,” said Carnes. “I miss a lot of the people, and Greenwood’s been a huge part of my life.”
The cover of “Dudgeons and Daggers” will look familiar to many locals. It is a picture of the Yazoo River railroad trestle near Fort Loring, featuring a dagger that belonged to William Meek “Bill” Davis, who received it after serving in the first Special Service Force during World War II. The dagger is on display at the Pillow Academy library.
Davis, a former Pillow teacher and headmaster who died in 2005, is not a character in the book. However, the dagger is an important part of the story, and Carnes’ memories of Davis from hacis days at Pillow did inspire his new novel.
“As a kid growing up in Greenwood, Bill Davis was a fixture at the school,” he said. “He was an amazing storyteller, teacher and an amazing man. He was someone I looked up to.”
“Dudgeons and Daggers” begins and ends at the Yazoo River railroad trestle. As a child growing up in Greenwood, Carnes spent much of his time on that trestle.
“It’s about a mile and half from Pillow’s front gate,” he said. “For as long as I was old enough to sachoot, friends of mine and I would go out to that trestle and shoot .22 rifles and shoot until we ran out bullets.”
Carnes’ novel begins when a pact of honor and responsibility is taken on D-Day by William Dunavant and Alex Powe — both expectant fathers who know they may not survive the invasion. When Powe is captured, tortured and killed, Dunavant vows to keep his promise.
Fourteen years later, Dunavant visits Powe’s son, Nick, the protagonist of the story, for the first time, telling the young man how his father died and of their lifetime agreement. Nick, a natural sniper, considers his ability a gift.
Dunavant’s daughter, Grace, is an intelligent, driven young woman cut from the same cloth as her father. Suspicious of her father’s role in past and current events, she confronts him after finding a letter regarding the search for a Nazi war criminal, the very one who killed Alex Powe.
Grace and Nick make a much more personal pact — one of dudgeons and daggers.
The novel features an assassination, espionage, honor and glory. It is set in the 1960s during the time of the Cuban Revolution, the Bay of Pigs debacle, John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Vietnam War’s Phoenix program, the French Connection heroin smuggling operation, and the capture and execution of Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
Several scenes in the book are set in and around Greenwood, and some local personalities are mentioned, such as Buck Randall and Lalla Walker Lewis.
“I like to write the kind of books that I like to read — interesting history with a fictional story woven in,” the author said.
Carnes was born in Jackson and moved to Greenwood at the age of 12. After graduating from Pillow, he attended the University of Mississippi. Then he served as a Green Beret in the U.S. Army Special Forces.
He also spent time working as a freelance journalist and then became an educator and basketball coach.
Carnes returned to Greenwood in 2011 and coached boys basketball at Pillow for two years. He said during that time he wrote the bulk of “Dudgeons and Daggers.”
When he returned to the school and saw Bill Davis’ dagger on display, he learned more about Davis’ time in the first Special Service Force and became inspired.
“I was amazed that he had that military record and that I had followed in his footsteps,” he said. “ I had that connection with someone who I looked up to and admired, and I didn’t know his story until I came back.”
Carnes currently teaches English and coaches girls basketball at Davidson Academy in Nashville. He and his wife have two sons.
• Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7233 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
