"Pull up a rocker and gaze into the hills at sundown. Old-time front porch storytelling unfolds in this dark, twisted tale where hardscrabble lives, murderous secrets, and ghosts intersect on a mysterious mountain." —Beth Hoffman, New York Times bestselling author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
Description
In arresting, haunting voices, Ann Hite weaves together the narratives of five Southern women whose lives are inextricably bound together when a brutal murder takes place in a rural South Carolina town in the 1930s.
Once a person leaves the mountain, they never come back, not really. They're lost forever.
Nellie Pritchard has married a man without realizing he was a walking ghost story. When she moves to Black Mountain in South Carolina with her husband, Hobbs, the townsfolk keep telling Nellie to get off the mountain while she still can—to go home before it's too late. They say the mountain is haunted, and it doesn't take long for Nellie to feel it, too...
Told in the stunning voices of five women whose lives are inextricably bound when a murder takes place in rural Depression-era North Carolina, Ann Hite’s unforgettable debut spans generations and conjures the best of Southern folk-lore—mystery, spirits, hoodoo, and the incomparable beauty of the Appalachian landscape.
Reviews
"An eerie page-turner told in authentic mountain voices that stick with the reader long after the story ends." –Amy Greene, author of Bloodroot
"Haunting, dark and unnerving, Hite's brilliant modern gothic casts an unbreakable spell."—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You
"The authentic voice of Nellie Pritchard, who comes to Black Mountain as a new bride, wraps around you and pulls you deep into this haunted story. Ann Hite delivers an eerie page-turner that I couldn’t put down." -- Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Gods in Alabama and Backseat Saints
