Search - The Ballad of Frankie Silver

My favorite of this author's Ballad Series. A beautiful, tragic mystery novel set in Appalachia, based on fact, that moves between this century and the last.

Sharyn McCrumb is one of my favorite authors. Both her "Elizabeth McPherson" series and her "Applachain foklore" series are wonderful. McCrumb takes a (true) story from the past and weaves it seamlessly with a story from today. Her charachters are detailed and interesting and the settings are haunting and real. If you like a wonderful story, history, folklore and a little bit of mystisism, try out one of her books. The stories contain recurring charachters but you do not need to read them in order. This story is one of my top three of hers.

This is a well written book - two stories told at once. The author goes between a modern day sheriff and his involvement with a murder case and the historic tale of Frankie Silver. She is the first woman in North Carolina to be hung for murder. The author does a good job of weaving the stories together and keeping me intrigued with both.

This is one of my favorite of McCrumb's books. McCrumb's books that entwine the tales of the Smokey mountains with her terrific ability to twist a mystery are indeed her bestand this is one of them.

Sharyn McCrumb is an aware winning southern author. The below is from her web site:

"She is best known for her Appalachian "Ballad" novels, set in the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains, including 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; and The Songcatcher, a genealogy in music, tracing the author's family from 18th century Scotland to the present by following a Scots Ballad through the generations. Ghost Riders, an account of the Civil War in the mountains of western North Carolina, won the Wilma Dykeman Award for Literature given by the East Tennessee Historical Society."

These are excellent books, I have read most of them.

One of several of McCrumb's novels set in the Appalachian wilderness blending legends and folklore with high suspense. An engrossing tale.

From back cover:
In 1833 Frankie Silver became the first woman in North Carolina to be hanged for murder. But what really happened so long ago becomes an obsession for Spencer Arrowood, the local sheriff, as the parallels between Frankie and Fate, between two crimes more than a hundred years apart, become as clear--and as shocking--as the single truth that joins two condemned souls.