Art's Blood by Vicki Lane

Title: Art's Blood
Author: Vicki Lane
ISBN: 9780440242093
Publisher: Bantam Dell, 2006
Mass Market Paperback, 448 pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth, #2 Full Circle Farm mystery
Rating: A
Source: Paperback Swap

First Line: I still see the bed-- its wide white expanse floating like a snowy island on the deep pearly carpet-- the creamy tufted silk coverlet neatly folded back-- the soft heaped pillows, their pale lace soaked and stiff with her blood.

The Appalachian Mountains to the west of Asheville, North Carolina, are a mix of old and new: people who have lived there for generations, newcomers who've moved in, artists, New Age devotees,  old farms, and new businesses. Over twenty years ago, Elizabeth Goodweather and her husband bought Full Circle Farm, eventually turning it into an organic herb and flower farm. Elizabeth moves easily between the worlds of Asheville and the old-timers who live back in their hollows. She's been a widow for six years, and only recently has she found her interest piqued in another man.

Although the farm takes most of her time, Elizabeth finds the ladies at the library to be very persuasive. Before she knows what's happening, she's agreed to round up quilts for an exhibit, and she finds the history behind one of them to be fascinating. At the same time, her youngest daughter talks her into attending performance art done by three young neighbors who live across the road from Full Circle Farm. When one of the young artists is murdered, Elizabeth finds herself caught between two mysteries: the true story behind a beautiful quilt-- and of murder.

Once again I've fallen under the spell of the world and of the characters that Vicki Lane has created. Elizabeth's the type of character I could easily call friend, and I like to "watch" her do her chores around the farm. She's level-headed, intelligent, kind, and not prone to being a clothes horse. And any time Elizabeth  wants to visit octogenarian Miss Birdie on her nearby farm, I'd definitely want to tag along. Miss Birdie may be an old mountain woman, but there's a lot about her that reminds me of those sharp-as-a-tack eightysomethings I grew up amongst in small town central Illinois.

Art's Blood fully explores the corrosive theme of jealousy with two major plot lines. One story takes place in the 1930s and focuses on the people involved in the making of a wonderful quilt. Through journal entries written by one of the survivors of those days, we see how the seeds of disaster were planted.

The second plot line involves Kyra, a beautiful young artist living across the road from Full Circle Farm. Traumatized as a child, she is very fragile, very mercurial-- and her family is very protective of her. Elizabeth's nephew, Ben, becomes infatuated with Kyra, as Elizabeth's daughter, Laurel, draws her mother deeper into the art world in Asheville. As the story progresses, the two threads begin to weave together into a tale that is tragic, haunting, deadly.... Nothing good ever comes of jealousy.

If you enjoy reading books that give you a chance to become well acquainted with the setting, the history, and an excellent cast of characters as well as telling tales that persuade you to keep reading into the wee hours of the morning, there's only one thing you can do: pick up a Full Circle Farm mystery by Vicki Lane.

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The Ballad of Tom Dooley by Sharyn McCrumb

Title: The Ballad of Tom Dooley
Author: Sharyn McCrumb
ISBN: 9780312558178
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2011
Hardcover, 320 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: A+
Source: Purchased from Amazon.

First Line: What did I know about murder cases that a man's life should lie in my hands?

Author Sharyn McCrumb had been approached numerous times to write a story about Tom Dooley, but it's such a well-known tale that she really didn't want to touch it. I'm glad she changed her mind.

If you read this book expecting a long written version of the Kingston Trio's "Tom Dooley", think again. McCrumb did her research, tracking down as many of the original documents and trial transcripts as she could. As she read, certain points in the legend didn't make sense, so she dug deeper. The end result is The Ballad of Tom Dooley.

Tom Dula (Dooley is a corruption of his surname) was a handsome young man who survived the Civil War and was coasting along, subsisting as much as possible by his smile and by playing an occasional song. Ever since their early teens, Tom and Ann Foster loved each other. Ann was a renowned beauty. In order to escape a drunken slattern of a mother and an unending passel of siblings, Ann married James Melton, a man of principle and a bit of property. Ann and Tom were undeterred by Ann's marriage and continued to meet.

Down from the mountains walked Pauline Foster, a relative of Ann's. Pauline was born into poverty, and the Civil War only made it worse. Having had to prostitute herself in order to survive, Pauline caught a venereal disease. Seeking treatment from a local doctor after her journey, she hired on at the Meltons, working for room, board, and a small wage she used to pay her doctor bills. She had no love for Ann, and closely guarded every one of selfish Ann's slights to her. Once she saw what Ann and Tom were up to, she knew just how to plot her revenge.

Oftentimes I do not read author's notes or acknowledgements in a book. I did not make that mistake this time. In her notes and acknowledgements, McCrumb lays out how she did her research and arrived at her conclusions. As McCrumb says, "...I did not invent anything: every conclusion I made stems from a fact in the original trial transcript." She also says that she wishes people wouldn't read this book as if it were an episode of CSI. After all, "It can hardly be a mystery when practically anybody in Wilkes County will tell you on first acquaintance that 'Ann did it.'"

The Ballad of Tom Dooley may not be a mystery, but it is the most chilling portrait of a sociopath that I've ever read. Pauline Foster literally made my blood run cold. Some soft-hearted people may try to blame her behavior on the Civil War. Pauline herself will tell you that she was born the way she is. The Civil War only honed her into a sharp blade.

As I devoured this book, something kept tap, tap, tapping at my subconscious. By book's end, I had the answer. The story of Tom and Ann is in many ways an Appalachian version of Wuthering Heights.  The parallels are uncanny.

Once again, Sharyn McCrumb has woven a story that kept me spellbound.

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The Day of Small Things by Vicki Lane

Title: The Day of Small Things
Author: Vicki Lane
ISBN: 9780385342636
Publisher: Dell, 2010
Mass Market Paperback, 432 pages
Genre: Suspense
Rating: A
Source: The author, in exchange for an honest review.

First Line: On the evening of the third day of labor, the woman's screams filled the little cabin, escaping through the open door to tangle themselves in the dark hemlocks that mourned and drooped above the house.

When life hands them lemons, some people are incapable of making lemonade. Death, war, poverty, sickness, children marrying and moving away... everything seems to be conspiring against Miz Fronie up in Dark Holler. She has become a bitter and twisted human being. When her last child, a little girl, is born, she calls the baby Least and leads everyone in the area to believe that the child isn't right in the head. If no one else wants her, Least will have to stay in Dark Holler with her mother.

Least's first glimpse of salvation is when Grandma Beck comes to live with them. Grandma Beck is crippled with arthritis, but she can help Least make rugs, and she can teach Least all she knows about the stories, the healing and the magic of their ancestors, the Cherokee. Least can see things that no one else can, and Grandma Beck brings her the balm of understanding what's happening to her.

A few years later, Least finds herself making a choice between her heritage and a young man who is a devout Christian. She makes him promises and never looks back-- until she is an old woman and an evil man has put an innocent young boy in mortal danger.

When Vicki Lane asked if I'd like to read a galley of her latest book, at first I was embarrassed. I'd read her first Elizabeth Goodweather mystery, Signs in the Blood, and really enjoyed it; however, like so many other mystery series I've started, I have yet to further my acquaintance with Ms. Goodweather. When Vicki told me that the book was about my favorite character, Miss Birdie, and not another book in the Goodweather series, I jumped at the chance to read The Day of Small Things.

I am so glad I did. Like another talented author who writes about Appalachia with love and lyricism, Lane brings the area and the people to life. I don't think there was a single character who did not engage my emotions in some way. To watch Least grow into Miss Birdie over the span of time was a privilege, and to see two old ladies forget their years and step out to battle for what's right was, quite simply, a joy.

If, like me, you are a fan of Sharyn McCrumb's Ballad novels and you'd like to read more quality fiction set in Appalachia that features wonderful characters-- by all means, read Vicki Lane. You won't regret it!

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The Devil Amongst the Lawyers by Sharyn McCrumb

Title: The Devil Amongst the Lawyers
Author: Sharyn McCrumb
ISBN: 9780312558161, Thomas Dunne Books, 2010
Genre: Historical Mystery, #8 Ballad series
Rating: A
Source: Amazon Vine

First Line: He had been there that day, all right.

Although I am a firm believer in the author's right to publish what they wish, I do want to be on record as saying that seven years is entirely too long to wait for a new Ballad novel. McCrumb's lyrical novels are love stories about the people and the places of Appalachia, and I have been enlightened and entertained with each one.

This eighth Ballad novel is based upon the 1935 trial of a young schoolteacher accused of murdering her father. The trial became a sensation, and newspapers all over the country latched onto it to boost sales.

As The Devil Amongst the Lawyers begins, the murder of crows is already winging its way to a small county in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The chief crows in this case are newspaper reporters Henry Jernigan, Rose Hanelon, Luster Swann, and photographer Shade Baker. None of them have been to Appalachia before, but (with the logical exception of Shade) all of them have finished writing their first articles to be sent back to their respective newspapers. You see, you don't have to be in a place to know what it's like.

On a separate train is a young reporter from Johnson City, Tennessee: Carl Jennings. Jennings proceeds to investigate, to talk to people, and to send back truthful reports to his newspaper. As the days progress, Jennings is in hot water. His truthful reports have no resemblance whatsoever to the articles sent in by the New York City journalists, and his bosses wonder if he's really on location. In desperation, he asks the parents of his thirteen-year-old cousin, Nora Bonesteel, if Nora can come to help their cousin who's busy running a boarding house in town. Jennings is hoping that Nora's gift of the Sight will give him the edge in the journalistic competition.

If you've read previous Ballad novels and open this book with a set of preconceived expectations, you may very well be disappointed. Although it is wonderful to see Nora Bonesteel as a teenager, she has very little to do with the action. The mystery itself, even though it is interesting, doesn't have much meat on its bones.

The major impetus of this book is its cautionary tale about journalism and its power to distort and mislead. (Not that anything like this would ever happen today. Heavens, no!) All the New York-based characters of the Fourth Estate did not go to their destination with open minds. They all had preconceived ideas of what Appalachia was really like, and even though they could see they were wrong upon arrival, they all knew the truth would not sell papers. As Rose Hanelon frequently said by way of excusing her and her companions' shoddy journalism, it really didn't matter what they said because two days later all the papers would be at the bottoms of bird cages.

Few writers have McCrumb's sheer talent with language and dialogue to immerse readers into a particular place and time. Throughout this book, I felt as though I were walking the streets of a small town in the Appalachia of 1935. I was listening to the condescending voices of the New York City reporters, and watching the guarded, distrustful looks of the townspeople.

As the trial gains notoriety , it becomes less and less a matter of a young woman's innocence or guilt, and more and more a matter of what everyone else can gain at her expense. It is a strong, compelling tale with fascinating characters and a wonderful sense of place. It's not the typical Ballad novel that McCrumb's fans have come to love and expect, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying every page.

Pronunciation Does Matter...

...and author Sharyn McCrumb very clearly tells us why. I thought I'd give you this little appetizer today. Stop by tomorrow for my review of McCrumb's latest book in her Ballad series, The Devil Amongst the Lawyers, on its release date.