Helpful Score: 2
I like Sharyn McCrumb's mysteries and I've liked the few of the non-mysteries Ive read, but not this one. The Devil Amongst the Lawyers is one of her Ballad Novels, about an event in Applachacian history. Erma Morton, a college-educated young woman, is being tried for the murder of her father. This event has caught the imagination of newspaper readers all over the country, and they've sent reporters to cover the trial. Only problem is that the big-city reporters are determined to slant the story to find the girl innocent and they don't care how many lies they write to do it. Carl, a young small-town reporter, is more interested to find the truth. He believes his secret weapon is his young cousin Nora Bonesteel, who has the gift of Sight, and hes counting on her to find something that will give him an edge. Nora is a recurring character in several of McCrumb's novels.
This would be a good story if McCrumb had actually told it. What we get instead is chapters from the POV of all these folks. Only Henry Jernigan's flashbacks to Japan are emotionally gripping. We don't learn anything new about Nora Bonesteel we didn't know from previous books, and Nora's involvement in the story seems mostly for atmosphere; she doesn't do anything to help or hinder Carl. We aren't given enough information to become invested in Erma's innocence or guilt. We learn something about Erma's brother (no spoilers) but McCrumb doesn't take it anywhere. We are told but not shown that Carl's reporting is endangering his job, and in the end he finds out nothing; no emotional involvement for the reader there. We are, however, beaten over the head every page or so with the information that big-city newspapers (mainstream media, anyone?) make up the facts to tell the public what they want the public to know.
McCrumb always does a good job with setting time and place, and at the end of the novel there's a few codas about what happens to the people in the story, which is nice. Still, a very dispassionate and un-engaging story. I thought perhaps McCrumb has some sort of axe to grind here but she sure didn't get it very sharp. In my opinion a reader new to McCrumb would wonder what the fuss is about; best to go back to her earlier mysteries.
This would be a good story if McCrumb had actually told it. What we get instead is chapters from the POV of all these folks. Only Henry Jernigan's flashbacks to Japan are emotionally gripping. We don't learn anything new about Nora Bonesteel we didn't know from previous books, and Nora's involvement in the story seems mostly for atmosphere; she doesn't do anything to help or hinder Carl. We aren't given enough information to become invested in Erma's innocence or guilt. We learn something about Erma's brother (no spoilers) but McCrumb doesn't take it anywhere. We are told but not shown that Carl's reporting is endangering his job, and in the end he finds out nothing; no emotional involvement for the reader there. We are, however, beaten over the head every page or so with the information that big-city newspapers (mainstream media, anyone?) make up the facts to tell the public what they want the public to know.
McCrumb always does a good job with setting time and place, and at the end of the novel there's a few codas about what happens to the people in the story, which is nice. Still, a very dispassionate and un-engaging story. I thought perhaps McCrumb has some sort of axe to grind here but she sure didn't get it very sharp. In my opinion a reader new to McCrumb would wonder what the fuss is about; best to go back to her earlier mysteries.
Cathy C. (cathyskye) -
First Line: He had been there that day, all right.
Although I am a firm believer in the author's right to publish what they wish, I do want to be on record as saying that seven years is entirely too long to wait for a new Ballad novel. McCrumb's lyrical novels are love stories about the people and the places of Appalachia, and I have been enlightened and entertained with each one.
This eighth Ballad novel is based upon the 1935 trial of a young schoolteacher accused of murdering her father. The trial became a sensation, and newspapers all over the country latched onto it to boost sales.
As The Devil Amongst the Lawyers begins, the murder of crows is already winging its way to a small county in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The chief crows in this case are newspaper reporters Henry Jernigan, Rose Hanelon, Luster Swann, and photographer Shade Baker. None of them have been to Appalachia before, but (with the logical exception of Shade) all of them have finished writing their first articles to be sent back to their respective newspapers. You see, you don't have to be in a place to know what it's like.
On a separate train is a young reporter from Johnson City, Tennessee: Carl Jennings. Jennings proceeds to investigate, to talk to people, and to send back truthful reports to his newspaper. As the days progress, Jennings is in hot water. His truthful reports have no resemblance whatsoever to the articles sent in by the New York City journalists, and his bosses wonder if he's really on location. In desperation, he asks the parents of his thirteen-year-old cousin, Nora Bonesteel, if Nora can come to help their cousin who's busy running a boarding house in town. Jennings is hoping that Nora's gift of the Sight will give him the edge in the journalistic competition.
If you've read previous Ballad novels and open this book with a set of preconceived expectations, you may very well be disappointed. Although it is wonderful to see Nora Bonesteel as a teenager, she has very little to do with the action. The mystery itself, even though it is interesting, doesn't have much meat on its bones.
The major impetus of this book is its cautionary tale about journalism and its power to distort and mislead. (Not that anything like this would ever happen today. Heavens, no!) All the New York-based characters of the Fourth Estate did not go to their destination with open minds. They all had preconceived ideas of what Appalachia was really like, and even though they could see they were wrong upon arrival, they all knew the truth would not sell papers. As Rose Hanelon frequently said by way of excusing her and her companions' shoddy journalism, it really didn't matter what they said because two days later all the papers would be at the bottoms of bird cages.
Few writers have McCrumb's sheer talent with language and dialogue to immerse readers into a particular place and time. Throughout this book, I felt as though I were walking the streets of a small town in the Appalachia of 1935. I was listening to the condescending voices of the New York City reporters, and watching the guarded, distrustful looks of the townspeople.
As the trial gains notoriety , it becomes less and less a matter of a young woman's innocence or guilt, and more and more a matter of what everyone else can gain at her expense. It is a strong, compelling tale with fascinating characters and a wonderful sense of place. It's not the typical Ballad novel that McCrumb's fans have come to love and expect, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying every page.
Although I am a firm believer in the author's right to publish what they wish, I do want to be on record as saying that seven years is entirely too long to wait for a new Ballad novel. McCrumb's lyrical novels are love stories about the people and the places of Appalachia, and I have been enlightened and entertained with each one.
This eighth Ballad novel is based upon the 1935 trial of a young schoolteacher accused of murdering her father. The trial became a sensation, and newspapers all over the country latched onto it to boost sales.
As The Devil Amongst the Lawyers begins, the murder of crows is already winging its way to a small county in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The chief crows in this case are newspaper reporters Henry Jernigan, Rose Hanelon, Luster Swann, and photographer Shade Baker. None of them have been to Appalachia before, but (with the logical exception of Shade) all of them have finished writing their first articles to be sent back to their respective newspapers. You see, you don't have to be in a place to know what it's like.
On a separate train is a young reporter from Johnson City, Tennessee: Carl Jennings. Jennings proceeds to investigate, to talk to people, and to send back truthful reports to his newspaper. As the days progress, Jennings is in hot water. His truthful reports have no resemblance whatsoever to the articles sent in by the New York City journalists, and his bosses wonder if he's really on location. In desperation, he asks the parents of his thirteen-year-old cousin, Nora Bonesteel, if Nora can come to help their cousin who's busy running a boarding house in town. Jennings is hoping that Nora's gift of the Sight will give him the edge in the journalistic competition.
If you've read previous Ballad novels and open this book with a set of preconceived expectations, you may very well be disappointed. Although it is wonderful to see Nora Bonesteel as a teenager, she has very little to do with the action. The mystery itself, even though it is interesting, doesn't have much meat on its bones.
The major impetus of this book is its cautionary tale about journalism and its power to distort and mislead. (Not that anything like this would ever happen today. Heavens, no!) All the New York-based characters of the Fourth Estate did not go to their destination with open minds. They all had preconceived ideas of what Appalachia was really like, and even though they could see they were wrong upon arrival, they all knew the truth would not sell papers. As Rose Hanelon frequently said by way of excusing her and her companions' shoddy journalism, it really didn't matter what they said because two days later all the papers would be at the bottoms of bird cages.
Few writers have McCrumb's sheer talent with language and dialogue to immerse readers into a particular place and time. Throughout this book, I felt as though I were walking the streets of a small town in the Appalachia of 1935. I was listening to the condescending voices of the New York City reporters, and watching the guarded, distrustful looks of the townspeople.
As the trial gains notoriety , it becomes less and less a matter of a young woman's innocence or guilt, and more and more a matter of what everyone else can gain at her expense. It is a strong, compelling tale with fascinating characters and a wonderful sense of place. It's not the typical Ballad novel that McCrumb's fans have come to love and expect, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying every page.
Bonnie S. (Bonnie) -
Sharyn McCrumb is my favorite southern author. I love her MacPherson mysteries for fun, and really love her Ballad books for just wonderful, rich reading. However, I just finished her latest Ballad, The Devil Amongst the Lawyers and was bored out of my mind. The ONLY relation to the other Ballads in the series was that it takes place in Appalachia, and for a very very short time, old Nora Bonesteel appears as a 12 year old. There is throughout the book a reporting of a murder trial, one all of the characters continue to say is beyond boring, which makes for a really boring book since those reporters are as boring as hell themselves. Oh, McCrumb tries to give them interesting backgrounds, but it doesn't work. This is the first book I've read in years that I actually made myself finish, since I don't do that anymore, struggle with a book. But I just couldn't accept that she'd written something so bland...
In 1935, when Erma Morton, a beautiful young woman with a teaching degree, is charged with the murder of her father in a remote Virginia mountain community, the case becomes a cause célèbre for the national press. Eager for a case to replace the Lindbergh trial in the public's imagination, the journalists descend on the mountain county intent on infusing their stories with quaint local color: horse-drawn buggies, rundown shacks, children in threadbare clothes. They need tales of rural poverty to give their Depression-era readers people whom they can feel superior to.
The untruth of these cultural stereotypes did not deter the big-city reporters, but a local journalist, Carl Jennings, fresh out of college and covering his first major story, reports what he sees: an ordinary town and a defendant who is probably guilty. This journey to a distant time and place summons up ghosts from the reporters' pasts: Henry Jernigan's sojourn in Japan that ended in tragedy, Shade Baker's hardscrabble childhood on the Iowa prairie, and Rose Hanelon's brittle sophistication, a shield for her hopeless love affair.
While they spin their manufactured tales of squalor, Carl tries to discover the truth in the Morton trial with the help of his young cousin Nora, who has the Sight. But who will believe a local cub reporter whose stories contradict the nation's star journalists? For the reader, the novel resonates with the present: an economic depression, a deadly flu epidemic, a world contending with the rise of political fanatics, and a media culture determined to turn news stories into soap operas for the diversion of the masses.A stunning return to the lands, ballads, and characters upon which she made her name, The Devil Amongst the Lawyers is a testament to Sharyn McCrumb's lyrical and evocative writing.
The untruth of these cultural stereotypes did not deter the big-city reporters, but a local journalist, Carl Jennings, fresh out of college and covering his first major story, reports what he sees: an ordinary town and a defendant who is probably guilty. This journey to a distant time and place summons up ghosts from the reporters' pasts: Henry Jernigan's sojourn in Japan that ended in tragedy, Shade Baker's hardscrabble childhood on the Iowa prairie, and Rose Hanelon's brittle sophistication, a shield for her hopeless love affair.
While they spin their manufactured tales of squalor, Carl tries to discover the truth in the Morton trial with the help of his young cousin Nora, who has the Sight. But who will believe a local cub reporter whose stories contradict the nation's star journalists? For the reader, the novel resonates with the present: an economic depression, a deadly flu epidemic, a world contending with the rise of political fanatics, and a media culture determined to turn news stories into soap operas for the diversion of the masses.A stunning return to the lands, ballads, and characters upon which she made her name, The Devil Amongst the Lawyers is a testament to Sharyn McCrumb's lyrical and evocative writing.
