The Devil Amongst the Lawyers
A Ballad Novel
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4.4 • 25 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A Literary Tour de Force: Murder, Media Frenzy, and Mountain Magic in Depression-Era Virginia
"Ms. McCrumb writes with quiet fire and maybe a little mountain magic. . . . She plucks the mysteries from people's lives and works these dark narrative threads into Appalachian legends older than the hills. Like every true storyteller, she has the Sight."—The New York Times Book Review
In 1935, a beautiful young schoolteacher is accused of murdering her coal-miner father in a Virginia mountain community. National journalists descend on Wise County, intent upon exonerating the defendant and stereotyping the mountain community to satisfy their Depression-era readers. But local cub reporter Carl Jennings writes what he sees: an ordinary town and a defendant who is probably guilty.
The Devil Amongst the Lawyers resonates with the present: an economic depression, a deadly Japanese earthquake, the rise of political fanatics, and a media culture turning news stories into soap operas for the masses. This literary mystery continues the Ballard saga by examining social issues that go well beyond the fate of one defendant. It is a testament to Sharyn McCrumb's lyrical and poetic writing about the mountain South.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1935, the case of an Appalachian schoolteacher arrested for murdering her father becomes a national news story, seized on by the press for its sensationalism and the opportunity to mock the rural inhabitants involved. Competing with a brigade of city journalists is novice Tennessee newspaperman Carl Jenkins, whose obsession with the truth leads him to call in his cousin Nora, gifted with second sight but what, exactly, can he report with no concrete evidence? The latest in McCrumb s Appalachian Ballad series (after 2003 s Ghost Riders) is decidedly mixed; McCrumb s grasp of setting and character instantly immerses readers in the worlds of both the sympathetic locals and the cynical city press. Her plot, part mystery and part cautionary tale, is passable, but leaves nothing for readers to work out on their own. Dialogue, which stretches for authentic, often feels awkward and stilted; though fans will be familiar with the style, new readers will likely be frustrated.
Customer Reviews
Very entertaining
Not as good as some of her best but still very good. Highly entertaining for anyone with an interest in Appalachia and pre WWII journalism. Nora Bonesteel makes another appearance although I don't see this as a "ballad" book as advertised.
A major good read
Billed as a mystery, and it is...but it is so much more. (And I love mysteries, so that is saying a lot.) It is a story of interconnected lives, conflicting cultures and the devil...more in the journalists than in the lawyers. Sharon is a fantastic writer and I was sorry to have the story end.