Long Black Veil,
recorded by Lefty Frizzell in the late 50’s, is my favorite country song.
It includes murder, adultery, a miscarriage of justice, and
eternal mourning. What more could you
want? Despite the fact that songwriter Danny Dill was inspired by a
newspaper story about the murder of a priest in New Jersey, in my heart of hearts I know this song should
have been written about a small town in
the Shenandoah Valley. This song resonates with me - I don’t care if I’m
listening to recordings by Springsteen, the Chieftains and Mick Jagger, Johnny
Cash, Dave Matthews, or Lefty himself.
The same feeling applies to novels and mysteries with a
strong sense of place, where the location is a character. Sharyn McCrumb’s Ballad Series is a prime example. Her earlier books (including The Rosewood Casket, She Walks These Hills and If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O) convinced me that my ancestors
from Scotland must have passed along the same rivers and hills and sang the
same songs. Adriana Trigiani’s Big Stone Gap novels and Margaret
Maron’s Deborah Knott series (starting with The
Bootlegger’s Daughter) strike the
same chord.
Julia Keller’s A
Killing in the Hills portrays a small town in West Virginia as vividly as a
segment on 60 Minutes discussing rural
poverty, prescription drug abuse, and the deadly popularity of hillbilly
heroin. Ms. Keller, however, reminds
readers that people are born and raised in small mountain towns, choose to
remain there, or even return there after living elsewhere. Being isolated may no longer be a safeguard
against the evils of modern life, but her main characters are fighting the good
fight and struggling to understand how good people can do bad things. I usually don’t read the blurbs on the back
of books, but I totally support the comment by author Karin Slaughter: “Julia
Keller is that rare talent who combines gripping suspense, a fabulous sense of
place, and nuanced characters you can’t wait to come back to. A must-read.”
S.Bakos
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