Matthew F. Jones is the author of seven novels and several screenplays, including adaptations of two of his own novels. His novels A Single Shot, Deepwater, and Boot Tracks have been made into major motion pictures. Jones grew up on a horse and dairy farm in rural upstate New York, where much of his work is set, and currently lives in Charlottesville, Va. His most recent novel, A Reckoning Up Black Cat Hollow (Regal House Publishing, January 27, 2026), is a crime thriller that follows an insurance salesman who finds his life spiraling into a dark and perilous world after an act of kindness.
Handsell readers your book in 30 words or less:
A marine veteran battling internal demons struggles to save an amnesiac young woman from pursuers real and ephemeral in the dark woods of upstate New York.
On your nightstand now:
Strangers on a Train. I read most of Patricia Highsmith's novels years ago, but somehow missed the one she is maybe most known for. Erasure by Percival Everett--I picked it up after watching Jeffrey Wright (who was great in the film adaptation of my novel A Single Shot) knock it out of the park in American Fiction, the film based on it. The novel so far is even better than the film. The Worst Hard Time, a 2006 book by Timothy Egan about survivors of the Dust Bowl--I generally like to intersperse some nonfiction reading in with the fiction I'm reading. My son gave me this one to read, and it's at once tragic and revealing of the natural destruction of our world caused by humankind's shortsightedness and greed.
Favorite books when you were a child:
Stuart Little by E.B. White. I browbeat my parents into buying me a pet mouse (or maybe they caught it in one of our barns) after the first of countless times I read it. White's Charlotte's Web was another early favorite. The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford--I related to the story even more after two of my family's pet dogs when I was nine years old were gone one morning when we got up and remained missing before showing back up on our doorstep over four months later!
John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway made me fall in love with books. From them I learned the best writing says more with less, thus engaging the reader's imagination to see, hear, experience well more than what is on the page. I read a lot of Saul Bellow--The Adventures of Augie March left an indelible imprint on me. Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, Carson McCullers's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.
Your top five authors:
Just five? That's tough. First ones off the top of my head whom I've gone back to read more than a couple times--Graham Greene, John Steinbeck, Flannery O'Connor, E.L. Doctorow, Elmore Leonard, for his dialogue.
Book you've faked reading:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, for an hour or so. I did it hoping to impress a high school girlfriend who loved the book. When she started asking me what I thought about certain portions of it, I knew the jig was up and came clean with her. She ended up complimenting me on my honesty, so it ended well.
Books you're an evangelist for:
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. It was more revealing to me of the 1930s Depression era than any of the history books I've read of the time. Fat City-- compact, heartbreaking, perfect, and the only novel Leonard Gardner ever wrote.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I'm too tight with money to buy a book just for its cover. But I can still picture the great Garth Williams cover for Stuart Little, with Stuart paddling a canoe. So, I'd probably buy that one even if I hadn't loved the book.
Book you hid from your parents:
I didn't have the kind of parents I had to hide what I was reading from. Some of their recommendations to me, other kids might have had to hide from their parents.
Books that changed your life:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee--it made me think I wanted to be a small-town lawyer in my hometown. Later, I was one for a while and found out I was wrong and Thomas Wolfe was right--you can't go home again, at least not as a lawyer for your old running mates. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck was one of a few books that made realize what I really wanted to be.
Favorite line from a book:
"We wear the chains we forge in life." --Nobody's Fool, Richard Russo
Five books you'll never part with:
Aside from my own (every writer should feel that way about the books they've written!), I'll go with The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor, Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, Fat City, and All the King's Men.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Stuart Little. Only I want to read it at the age I was when I read it the first time. Second choice, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.
Anyone you want to thank:
The authors of all the books I've read--and will read--for all the places they've taken me and people they've introduced me to.