The Good Life

Imogene Good wanted a fresh start after her mother died. She left Burkburnett, Texas, moving to the Texas oilfield boom town of Borger. There she opened a boarding house, serving meals to workmen during the hardscrabble years of the late 1920s. She has a teaching degree, but teaching positions are scarce in Texas, and she knows how to cook.

A Family of Good Women, by Teddy Jones, follows Imogene and her family as she deals with her grief at her mother’s death. Simultaneously, she has to deal with being a respectable single woman in a lawless town.

Borger offers opportunities to Imogene. Working men need feeding and her business thrives. Yet the oil town is filled with gamblers, bootleggers, prostitutes and other organized criminal ventures. The governor sent in Texas Rangers two years earlier, in 1927, to clean the town up. It did not stick. Rumor holds he is ready to do it again, this time declaring martial law.

While Imogene starts alone, she does not long remain alone or friendless. A tramp appears, trading dishwashing for meals. After he suddenly moves on, Imogene learns he is more than a simple tramp. He is watching out for her.

A stray dog adopts her, becoming a guard dog. Then cousin Sue Ellen Good turns up, asking to stay. Sue Ellen is not a favorite of Imogene, but family is family. Sue Ellen becomes a valuable helper, evolving into a business partner and friend.

Violence threatens her business, but Imogene overcomes it with a combination of individual grit and assistance from Sue Ellen and the good folks in Borger. She becomes friends with a local lawyer while Sue Ellen strikes up with a carpenter. Even as crime strikes her boarding house, forces within town and outside work to bring the lawlessness to heel.

At the same time, Imogene begins exploring a trunk that Imogene inherited from her mother. In it she discovers journals written by her grandmother, revealing the Good family secrets. They explain why three generations of Goods are all female, without men.

A Family of Good Women is fascinating and inspiring. Jones captures the gritty nature of Panhandle Texas of a century ago. It captures the virtues of most Texans of that era, their loyalty, willingness to work hard, and integrity. It wraps everything in a heartwarming tale of everyday people struggling to overcome the challenges of life on the Texas plains, who find friendship, family, and love along the way.

“A Family of Good Women,” by Teddy Jones, Stoney Creek Publishing Group, ‎ September 2025, 354 pages, $22.95 (Paperback), $2.95 (E-book)

This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.