It
begins normally enough: a small group of teenagers plan a slightly disobedient
get-together up by long-abandoned mines up in the mountains. By the time the
night is done, the small town of Crow Hollow will be under a curse, a curse
that leads to hysteria, destruction, and death.
This
is Billy Coffey’s The
Curse of Crow Hollow. It is a dark tale, unremitting and unrelenting, a
story that builds to a series of climaxes that will leave the town devastated,
and reader with chewed fingernails.
The
story centers on five families: Bucky Vest works at the town dump, while his
wife Angela watches television soap operas and daughter Cordelia believes she’s
in love with Hays Foster. Hays parents, Landis and Kayann, own the local grocery
store. Mayor Bickford and his daughter Sharon still mourn the death of his wife
and her mother. David Ramsay is the church pastor; at home is his wife Belle
and daughter Naomi, while his son John David stays with Chessie and Briar Hodge,
the town’s suppliers of moonshine.
The
teens stumble into Alvaretta Graves, long rumored to be a witch. A
confrontation ends with Scarlett striking Alvaretta, who speaks a curse on the teens
and the town. And the curse begins immediately.
It’s
Coffey’s darkest tale yet and, I would argue, his best. It’s been a pleasure to
watch his writing grow and develop. This is a story that would be difficult for
any writer to keep command over, moving as it does through the main characters,
minor characters, side stories and secrets buried in the past. But Coffey does
it, and does it well.
Billy Coffey |
This
story is a far cry from his first two novels, Snow
Day and Paper
Angels. The turn toward dark tales began with When
Mockingbirds Sing, followed by The
Devil Walks in Mattingly and In
the Heart of the Dark Wood. The last three are set in the same general
area of the Blue Ridge Mountains as The
Curse of Crow Hollow.
Of
particular note is the unnamed narrator, who speaks with a Southern accent and
a voice that is both knowledgeable and yet almost chilling. Who is this? It’s a
man, likely an elderly man, but his identity isn’t revealed until the end.
With
The Curse of Crow Hollow, Billy Coffey
is breaking new ground. He’s moved in a more literary direction. He has plumbed
the depths of the emotions and realities of small town life. And what he’s best
known for – telling simple but great stories about ordinary people – is in full
flower.
1 comment:
Thanks for another thoughtful review. I hope you'll be an early reader for the next one as well.
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