I usually do not take the time to write reviews, but it may be time to start. I was drawn to this book because I live in Appalachia on the Tennessee side of the mountains. Recently we spent some time in Yadkin County, North Carolina for my artist wife to paint. Add to that I have always enjoyed folk music and had heard the Kingston Trio version of the song many times over the years. As for the book, the characters of Ann Melton and Pauline Foster are easy to despise. Laura Foster and James Melton were easy to pity, and Tom Dula, another amoral young man thinking with the wrong part of his anatomy. In my nearly 70 years around the son I have met people just like each one of them. Unlike some of the other reviewers I appreciated the moral compass that Zebulon Vance brought to the story. Unfortunately the people of Appalachia are stereotyped more often in the vein of Pauline, Ann, Laura and Tom, while ignoring those that do not fit the ignorant narrative, like Zebulon Vance. I have read and reread the story of the Overmountain men of Appalachia. These men are a source of pride on both sides of the Blue Ridge. I enjoyed seeing the Vance family connection to the Overmountain men. If you do not know this story a quick Google search will give you the background.

I really wanted to discover that karma caught up with Pauline Foster as it did with Ann Melton, which sent me down another rabbit hole. So here is the question that I did not see asked. Pauline Foster knew where the body was because Ann showed her? Why would Ann Melton do that? If we assume she would not have, then you have to ask, how did Pauline know where the body was unless she was in on the murder?
But I digress, the reason I decided to write this review is because I made the mistake of reading some of the other reviews. Although I agree there was some repetition, the book still kept my interest until the end. I was surprised to see some reviews that were incredibly harsh and some
downright nasty. We have a saying here in the South. "Some people just have to show they weren't raised right." Anyone that needs proof of this need only read some of these reviews or the comments section of social media post. ( )

I had a really hard time getting into this gook. I think the problem was that there was no one to care about or root for. I didn't actually get into the story until the very end. And then I found it even more interesting when I read the authors note at the end about the true story. I'm not sure how this could have been done differently to draw me in, but something was not executed properly. ( )

This one was probably a lot of fun for the author to write, and I felt like she did a pretty decent job of writing in a couple of different period voices, but the voice of the main woman character didn't really fit the profile or likely experience of that character, which was bothersome to me. It was a little repetitive, and it was too long. It felt in a way like a goose chase, as the author is presenting an alternate or suspected history for a real-life crime. So it was sort of a very long voice exercise seeking to dramatize a maybe-cockamamie theory, and that's just less interesting to me than e.g. Mary Doria Russell's more authentic-feeling historical novels or something a little heavier. I think it's a fine book that just didn't land for me. ( )

Somewhat different from the other ballad series books; based on a true story. ( )

McCrumb was unknown to me before the excellent mrstreme generously shared this ARC with me. The author researched the original records of the trials behind the ballads, and presented a novelization based on what she believes to have been the "real" story of the murder of Laura Foster. It's a good story, too, if a tad repetitious in places. Not an awful lot happens, really. The primary narrator is Pauline Foster, a cousin of the murdered woman, and in McCrumb's version the person truly responsible for the death of Laura Foster and the hanging of Tom Dula, even though in a legal sense, her hands were clean. I enjoyed this book, although the sections (brief and few) narrated by Dula's defense attorney Zebulon Vance contributed very little to the story, with the exception of the very last one. A solid 3 1/2 star read.
Reviewed in 2011 ( )