She Walks These Hills (Ballad) [Hardcover]

Sharyn Mccrumb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1994 | Series: Ballad

The Edgar-winning author of The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter weaves another mesmerizing ballad mystery with a restless spirit from the 1700s, a deranged ex-convict searching the hills for a home that no longer exists, and a shocking murder. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1779, Katie Wyler, 18, was captured by the Shawnee in North Carolina. The story of her escape and arduous journey home through hundreds of miles of Appalachian wilderness is the topic of ethno-historian Jeremy Cobb's thesis-and the thread which runs through the third of McCrumb's ballad novels (after The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter). As Cobb begins to retrace Katie's return journey, 63-year-old convicted murderer Hiram (Harm) Sorley escapes from a nearby prison. Suffering from Korsakoff's syndrome, he has no recent memory: old Harm is permanently stuck in the past. Hamelin, Tenn., police dispatcher Martha Ayers uses the opportunity to convince the sheriff to assign her as a deputy. One of her first duties is to calm a young mother who, angry at her inattentive husband, is threatening her baby with a butcher knife. Ayers and the sheriff must also warn Harm's ex-wife Rita that he has escaped. Acting as a kind of narrative conscience is a local deejay, a "carpetbagger from Connecticut," who sees Harm as a folk hero from another era. Deftly building suspense, McCrumb weaves these colorful elements into her satisfying conclusion as she continues to reward her readers' high expectations. Mystery Guild selection; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA?Mystery and folklore are skillfully blended in this contemporary Appalachian tale. Driving the plot are "Harm" (Hiram) Sorley, an aging prisoner suffering from recent memory loss, who receives a spiritual message to escape from prison and return home to North Carolina; history grad student Jeremy Cobb, who wants to hike the trail used by Katie Wyler in the late 1700s when she escaped from Indians who held her captive; and members of the sheriff's department who search for both of these men. Strong females also figure prominently in this title, not the least of whom is Katie Wyler, dead over 200 years, whose spectral image helps several characters. Assisting Sheriff Arrowwood is his newest deputy, Martha Ayers, who's determined to prove she can rise above the lot of dispatcher. When all these folks converge beside a burning trailer home, more than one mystery is solved. McCrumb's rich use of dialect, accompanied by both physical description of and folklore about the mountains, combine to produce an evocative, haunting story. This novel defies stereotypical mystery elements, offering instead a complete melange of character study, plot, and setting.?Pam Spencer, Chapel Square Media Center, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First Edition ~1st Printing edition (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684195569
• ISBN-13: 978-0684195568
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #467,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am an award-winning Southern writer. I am probably best known for my
Appalachian "Ballad" novels, set in the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains. These books include New York Times Best Sellers She Walks These Hills and The Rosewood Casket, which deal with the issue of the vanishing wilderness, and The Ballad of Frankie Silver, the story of the first woman hanged for murder in the state of North Carolina; The Songcatcher, a genealogy in music; and Ghost Riders, an account of the Civil War in the Appalachians.

My newest novel St. Dale, the Canterbury Tales set in NASCAR, was published by Kensington Books of New York in 2005, and is currently a nominee for the Library of Virginia Literary Award in Fiction and a finalist for its People's Choice Award.

Honors include: the 2003 Award for Literature given by the
East Tennessee Historical Society; AWA Outstanding Contribution to
Appalachian Literature Award; Chaffin Award for Achievement in Southern
Literature; Plattner Award for Short Story; and AWA's Best Appalachian
Novel.

I was the first writer-in-residence at King College in Tennessee. In 2001 I
served as fiction writer-in-residence at the WICE Conference in Paris, and
in 2005 I was honored as the writer of the year at the annual literary
celebration at Emory and Henry College. (And I was the first Southern writer to take along a NASCAR driver to that literary seminar. Thank you, Ward Burton!)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Appalachian Fiction at its Finest, May 20, 2002

By 

Ramona Honan "reviews-by-melva" (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: She Walks These Hills (Paperback)

She Walks These Hills is another excellent book in the Appalachian series by Sharyn McCrumb. She again combines two stories - one in the present and one in the past along with a pinch of a ghost story, culminating in an overall satisfying novel.

This installment tells of the stories of Harm Sorley, an escaped murderer in the Appalachian area, a college professor following the trail of Katie Wyler, a pioneer woman trying to get to her home in 1799, and Hank the Yank, a bodacious radio personality who tries to get into both these stories. I will not give the ending away as some reviewers did, but you need to read this book to get the full flavor of the area and the era.

How do these three characters intertwine with each other - both from the past and present? It is up the reader to find out in this thrilling novel.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, August 30, 2004

By 

Tome Toad (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: She Walks These Hills (Paperback)

I thought when I first picked this book up that it was going to be one of those gothic potboilers with spooky ghosts, swooning women and brave (male) ghostbusters. Oh, and a scary, escaped killer out to wreak havoc on innocent people. It's got a tiny little bit of the goth in it, but it's much more than that. It's a modern story about modern people and takes on some big topics - prejudice, bigotry, justice, right and wrong, good and evil, stupidity in pursuit of noble causes. There's not a badly drawn character in the book; they all feel like real people with real complexities and complicated motives, often only precariously in control of the situations they get themselves into. The dialogues flow smoothly and sound real - you can hear these conversations. You'll recognize these people and you'll recognize yourself in them. Even the ghost story underpinning the book is fascinating and historically informative. If you're looking for a readable story that will hold your interest, this is it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional writing-great reading, July 5, 2002

By 

Susie Rigsby "([e-mail])" (Eldorado, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: She Walks These Hills (Paperback)

WOW! That's about how I feel about this novel written by Sharyn McCrumb. Of all the books I've read of late, this has to be one of the very best. I wish I could give it a 10 rating. The book was loaned to me. "Read this, I think you'll like it." Well, she was right. I didn't just like it. I loved it. Being of Cherokee decent, and knowing a little about the Appalachia area, naturally that sparked my interest. Being a native of the area, McCrumb has done a wonderful job with this novel. She mastered the plot, the characters, the dialogue and ME. I couldn't put the book down. I'm putting McCrumb at the top of my list as one of my favorite authors. The research and persons involved made this book everything that it is. My hat is off to McCrumb. Without further ado, I'm off to the library to gather another novel she's written. Take my advice and get a copy of this book. You'll see what I mean.