Very enjoyable. The combination of psychology, folklore and solid storytelling makes for a great read ( )

touching mystery set in Tennessee hills, beaten children, pregnant preacher's wife

Haunting and mystical, much like the snippets from Shakespeare’s Hamlet that are staged throughout this mystery set in the mountain community of Dark Hollow, Tn. I enjoyed rereading this mainly because it introduces Nora Bonesteel, my favorite Ballad Series character. She’s the mountain wise woman both blessed and cursed with the Sight, the random visions of the future and the spirit world that help make these stories so spellbinding. ( )

This second installment in McCrumb's "ballad series" introduces a recurring character, Nora Bonesteel, a woman who is blessed or cursed with "the Sight", which tells her things she often would rather not know. A hideous family massacre, in which a teenager kills his parents, his little brother and then himself, brings Sheriff Arrowood and the pastor's wife, Laura Bruce, into the lives of the two surviving teenaged siblings. I had a few reservations about the set-up in this one, but the story played out well, and I know from prior reading of later entries in the series that Nora Bonesteel is a force to be reckoned with.

I just started reading Sharyn McCrumb' s Appalachian books and I find myself emerged in them. These are her people and she does a beautiful job of telling their story. It's not a story of the "dumb hillbilly" , it's a story of their daily struggle to survive in a world that in some ways has left them behind. These are such proud people. Proud of their mountains, their families and communities and their Irish-Scott- Welch heritage. An old woman has the "sight", a young man kills but for a reason that we can't imagine, the preacher's wife finds her place and her reason for being with this community. It's just an extremely good read. ( )