Sharyn McCrumb: She Walks These Hills

Sharyn McCrumb

She Walks These Hills

Christina says:

Is Harm Sorley a confused old man or a dangerous criminal with dark intentions? At first nobody takes the news seriously that Harm Sorley, the last of a clan of legendary outlaws, has escaped from prison where he was serving a life sentence for murder. After all the convict is more than sixty years old. Harm's ex-wife Rita doesn't seem worried, but her new husband is less than thrilled to be reminded of his wife's hillbilly origin. Martha Ayers, formerly the dispatcher at the Hamelin sheriff's office, talked Sheriff Spencer Arrowood into making her a deputy. She doubts Sorley's harmlessness and wants to prove herself to her skeptical colleagues by arresting him. Radio DJ Hank the Yank turns Harm into some kind of folk hero and digs up new facts about the murder he was sent to prison for. There seem to be some people in the area who think that Harm's victim only got what he deserved.

But what is the truth? After a violent death the situation threatens to get out of control.

Sharyn McCrumb takes her readers to Appalachia. Here you can still walk for days and not meet another human being. It is possible to forget that you are in a highly industrialized country. You can still meet people of a special kind, shaped by the life in a rough and remote part of the country, but there are only a few of them left, because civilization is making its way into the valleys of East Tennessee. One of them is Nora Bonesteel who lives on her mountain preserving the old traditions but well aware of the fact that the old times are gone forever. She sees things nobody else sees, like the ghost of Katie Wyler, a girl abducted by the Shawnee 200 years ago who took upon her an incredible march through the wilderness to return to her family. Katie's fate is the thread that runs through the complex narrative. There is no one hero, but rather a group of people doing their jobs and trying to deal with their problems.

A memorable book with characters I look forward to meeting again.