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"Fine regional tale"

Born and raised in the Hill Country of Georgia, Fever Devlin grew up observing his parents wretched marriage and wanted no part of the institution. He attended college, traveled all over Europe, and finally came back to the United States to become a folklore professor at a notable university. When the department, of which he was the chairperson, broke up, he came to his home in Blue Mountain, recording the lore that residents have passed through the generations.

At the local church, Dev hears an argument between the witch woman Truevine Deveroe and her boyfriend Able. Hours later Dev discovers the body of the murdered mortician Harding Pinehurst. At times, Dev and the local deputy think that either Able or Truevine murdered the man. They make a grisly find in the winds where over three hundred bodies that were supposed to be buried are found barely covered. Everyone wants answers to who the killer is and why the bodies were never given a proper burial. The answers will astound readers as much as they stun Dev.

Phillip Depoy captures the ambience of life in a small isolated mountain hamlet where generations of families have lived and contributed to the culture of the area. Dev is an educated, polished man who accepts his neighbors on their own terms and never condescends to them. When it comes to regional writers, Mr. DePoy is one of the best.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted January 11, 2004

Fever Devilin was raised amongst the hill-country people of the deep Georgia Appalachians and their seemingly simple folk ways are in his blood and his soul. His own family, however, was another matter and at sixteen he left home for college, returning only rarely and always under protest. In the years to come, Fever became a noted folklorist of the Appalachian region and a college professor. He never quite adjusted to the realities of city life and academic politics, and has now returned to the deceptively quiet life amongst his people. But below the surface, nothing is ever as quiet and simple as it appears.

When Truevine Deveroe, a local girl reputed to be a witch, goes missing and the local mortician, acknowledged as an unpleasant character, turns up dead near Devilin's home, Able Carter, fiancé of the missing girl, is suspected of killing them both. Tied by friendship and long-term enmity to all of the principals, Fever finds himself in the midst of a very difficult situation. To make matters even worse, the brothers of the missing girl are determined to find Carter - who has taken it on the lam - and administer their own brand of justice. With precious little time, lives at stake, and a missing girl to be found, Devilin must unravel the mystery behind this perplexing series of events. A series of events somehow related to the hidden history of the area and the old folk legend of the witch's grave.