Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite

Seventy-something author Kerry Smith has written "The Boogie Trapp" after the death of his childhood friend, Charles Trapp, as he promised that he would. Kerry and Charles, known in childhood as Boogie and Trapp, grow up in Black Creek, a coal-mining town in Jefferson County, Alabama. The town is called Black Creek as the small stream that runs nearby is a catchall for the coal washing runoff. The townspeople live in plain homes, which "Boogie"'s father called "slab houses." The superintendent of the mines and his general managers had better homes but that was just the way it was living back then. Boogie and Trapp are just boys growing up, doing their "boys will be boys" things around town and under the watchful eye of local Sheriff Britt. Then one day the boys are enticed by Bill Brady who is called "Donkey Bill" by locals as everyone knew he was queer. Bill tells the boys that he needs help getting a truck out of the mud near Big Rock swimming hole. But what Bill has in mind is sexually molesting Boogie and Trapp accompanied by a wealthy, unnamed man who is on his way to join them. How Boogie and Trapp get away after horrific hours with Bill is the theme of this book which the author promised his friend Charles Trapp that he would write after he died.

"The Boogie Trapp" by Kerry Copeland Smith is a riveting story, told in the vernacular of the deep South, that many will want to read in this day of Jerry Sandusky and what he got away with as he molested boys for years. Boogie and Trapp are believable characters, boys doing what boys always do, and their capture by Bill Brady is well told. The author captures every moment that the boys spent with "Donkey Bill" as they gradually became aware of what it was really all about. As time goes on, more stories like "The Boogie Trap" will emerge as people learn that there is nothing new under the sun and sexual molestation has been around for a long, long time.