read the dutch translation (actually, currently reading)....I did read some stories with a bit of the same set-up. Unfortunately this was before I started listing what I read. I really like this noir US-country side stories!

A disgraced journalist returns home to Pilgrim's Rest, a small mountain hamlet in Tennessee founded by an unusual religious group, and is recruited to write a book about his childhood friend who went on to become the state's governor. The governor's mother, who is beginning to suffer from dementia, is attacked and found hanged; her dead husband makes an appearance, and the bones of a long-missing young woman are turned up in a place where a civil war atrocity is supposed to have happened. A complex book with a complex protagonist.

Wright's John Ray Horne series is outstanding, so I read this stand alone out of desperation at not having any more John Ray Hornes to read.

Randall Wilkes has just ended his career as a Chicago journalist in disgrace. He comes back to his childhood home of Pilgrim's Rest, Tennessee, to write a biography of his childhood friend and former Tennessee governor Sonny McMahan. He is staying in Sonny's house when he finds the bodies of Sonny's mother and her young caregiver.

I didn't like this as well as the John Ray Horne series, but it was a good read. The characterizations were good, but some reactions didn't feel real to me. I think so many unnatural deaths in a small town would have created stronger reactions in the townspeople, and for one would have thought that the returning stranger would have been under more suspicion. ( )

Former newspaper journalist Randall Wilkes returns to his Tennessee hometown to ghostwrite a biography of his childhood friend and former Tennessee governor, Sonny McMahan. He soon becomes embroiled in a series of murders, including that of McMahan's mother. During the course of the investigation, the remains of Callie Darnell, a girlfriend from Randall's long ago past, are also found. Is Callie's death somehow connected to the current string of murders? Was Sunny McMahan somehow involved in Callie's death? The author keeps the reader guessing until the very last surprise twist. Wright is a good writer who deserves to be read. ( )

Randall Wilkes, in disgrace after being fired from his Chicago newspaper, returns to his home town of Pilgrim?s Rest to take on the job of ghost writing the autobiography of his old school friend, and former state governor, Sonny McMahon. On the night he arrives at Sonny?s summer house just outside the town, Randall has an unexpected visit from Sonny?s mother, Faye. Now suffering from dementia, Faye makes some garbled comments about her dead husband and her son being in danger. Later that night with a storm raging, Randall woken by a scream, investigates and finds Faye murdered, hanging from a bridge over Damnation Falls. When some bones found in a field outside town are identified as one of Randall's old girlfriends, he determines to find her killer.

This is a book about truth and lies, and the extent to which some people will go to protect their lies, and the sometimes devastating consequences of uncovering the truth. But mostly this is a book about families, and the ties that bind even the most dysfunctional. The Southern small town setting feels very realistic, with Wright depicting a South with a deep sense of history. The characters are all very believable, and the main characters particularly likeable. Told in the first person with an easy flowing style, Wright has created a complex, multi-layered story that carries the reader through to a gripping finale.

Edward Wright, a former journalist, has previously written three books set in 1940s Los Angeles featuring former B-movie cowboy star, John Ray Horn. Each has won an award, the Debut Dagger, the Shamus, and the Ellis Peters Historical Crime Award respectively. Damnation Falls is his first standalone. ( )