# Identify this book from snippets I remember!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 20, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530 "2009-10-20T21:59:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530/1 "2009-10-20T21:59:04Z")
I’ve given up on ever finding out what the hell this book was, but I’ve seen other people here get an answer with much less, so what the hey–it’s worth a shot.
The book I’m looking for is, for lack of a better word, an urban/modern fantasy. I got it from my high school library, which means it could not have been published later than early 2001. I’m pretty sure I read it before senior year, too (and it was a paperback), which means it was probably first published some time in the mid to late '90s.
The basic plot is that a man goes back to visit… the town where he grew up, or the town his family was originally from, or the town where his grandfather lived. Something like that. The town turns out to be full of supernatural entities. Bad shit goes down, and they have to fend off an attack by… something or somebody.
One character is an animated scarecrow (Jack Straw) who’s very deadly. There are elves, who have kobolds etc. working for them… The kobolds could distort their bodies, I think, e.g., stretch their limbs and the like. I think there was some sort of (gladitorial?) event hosted by the elves, which was opened by drinking the blood of a captive elf who was being punished for some long-forgotten discretion.
During the attack, the town sherriff gives in to despair and commits suicide by plunging his eye down on one of those spike message holder dealies.
One of the characters was an older man… I don’t remember what was special about him. But he had a big revolver, with the explanation that if you ran out of ammo, at least you could hit somebody with it.
The big reveal at the end is that the guy’s grandfather was the incarnation of… time, I think. The title may have involved the word “Time” somewhere, too. I think the cover may have had an hourglass.
Any clues?
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530/2 "2009-10-20T23:54:20Z")
_Wuthering Heights_?
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530/3 "2009-10-21T01:04:52Z")
I asked over at Shocklines. Someone said it’s a stretch, but thinks it might be [Escardy Gap](http://www.amazon.com/Escardy-Gap-Peter-Crowther/dp/0812555392). But I think you’d have remembered the train.
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### Author:  [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530/4 "2009-10-21T15:22:01Z")
> [@Morbo](#):
>
> _Wuthering Heights_?
I have no response but :smack:.
> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> I asked over at Shocklines. Someone said it’s a stretch, but thinks it might be [Escardy Gap](http://www.amazon.com/Escardy-Gap-Peter-Crowther/dp/0812555392). But I think you’d have remembered the train.
Nope, but thanks for asking.
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### Author:  [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530/5 "2009-10-21T15:31:08Z")
Could it have been Shadowsfall by Simon Green?
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530/6 "2009-10-21T15:36:52Z")
> [@Barking\_Dog](#):
>
> Could it have been Shadowsfall by Simon Green?
For the OP - the first review in [the Amazon listing](http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Fall-Simon-R-Green/dp/1932100458/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256139283&sr=8-1) (by Arthur W. Jordin) has a pretty decent synopsis. Looks like the scarecrow is called Jack Fetch, and there are elves/faeries, and a sheriff, and a man returning to his old town.
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### Author:  [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530/7 "2009-10-21T16:11:22Z")
> [@barking dog](#):
>
> could it have been shadowsfall by simon green?
Yes! YES! **YES!** I love you forever! My firstborn child is yours!
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### Author:  [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530/8 "2009-10-21T17:14:52Z")
Oh good, I love children! Especially with a cream sauce and a nice white wine. Delicious.
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### Author:  [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530/9 "2009-10-21T17:42:49Z")
If you like, I could attempt some kind of daily massage while it’s still in the womb, to keep it extra-tender.
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### Author:  [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530/10 "2009-10-21T18:41:24Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#):
>
> If you like, I could attempt some kind of daily massage while it’s still in the womb, to keep it extra-tender.
just don’t apply any more salve for basting purposes. :eek:
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### Author:  [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speak_to_me_Maddie)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530/11 "2009-10-21T20:12:31Z")
> [@Morbo](#):
>
> _Wuthering Heights_?
I rarely laugh out loud (literally) at message board comments, but this did it. It helps that I have my screen minimized, and I read through the whole OP, and then scrolled down to the first answer and it read just like a punch line.
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-book-from-snippets-i-remember/514530/12 "2009-10-22T20:55:37Z")
> [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](#):
>
> I rarely laugh out loud (literally) at message board comments, but this did it. It helps that I have my screen minimized, and I read through the whole OP, and then scrolled down to the first answer and it read just like a punch line.
I aim to please. 🙂