The unquiet grave : a novel
A novel set in nineteenth-century West Virginia, based on the true story of one of the strangest murder trials in American history--the case of the Greenbrier Ghost. Lakin, West Virginia, 1930. Following a suicide attempt and consigned to a segregated insane asylum, attorney James P. D. Gardner finds himself under the care of Dr. James Boozer. Fresh out of medical school, Dr. Boozer is eager to try the new talking cure for insanity, and encourages his elderly patient to reminisce about his experiences as the first black attorney to practice law in nineteenth-century West Virginia. Gardner's most memorable case was the one in which he helped to defend a white man on trial for the murder of his young bride--a case that the prosecution based on the testimony of a ghost. Greenbrier, West Virginia, 1897. Beautiful, willful Zona Heaster has always lived in the mountains of West Virginia. Despite her mother's misgivings, Zona marries Erasmus Trout Shue, the handsome blacksmith who has recently come to Greenbrier County. After weeks of silence from the newlyweds, riders come to the Heasters' place to tell them that Zona has died from a fall, attributed to a recent illness. Mary Jane is determined to get justice for her daughter. A month after the funeral, she informs the county prosecutor that Zona's ghost appeared to her, saying that she had been murdered. An autopsy, ordered by the reluctant prosecutor, confirms her claim. The Greenbrier Ghost is renowned in American folklore, but Sharyn McCrumb is the first author to look beneath the legend to unearth the facts. Using a century of genealogical material and other historical documents, McCrumb reveals new information about the story and brings to life the personalities in the trial: the prosecutor, a former Confederate cavalryman; the defense attorney, a pro-Union bridgeburner, who nevertheless had owned slaves; and the mother of the murdered woman, who doggedly sticks to her ghost story--all seen through the eyes of a young black lawyer on the cusp of a new century, with his own tragedies yet to come. With its unique blend of masterful research and mesmerizing folklore, illuminating the story's fascinating and complex characters, The Unquiet Grave confirms Sharyn McCrumb's place among the finest Southern writers at work today.
Available Copies by Location
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Community Centre | Available |
| Stamford | Checked out |
Browse Related Items
| Genre |
| Historical fiction. Biographical fiction. Legal fiction (Literature) |
- ISBN: 9781476772875
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Physical Description
print
358 pages ; 24 cm - Publisher [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 2017.
Additional Information
BookList Review
The Unquiet Grave : A Novel
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
McCrumb's new novel is based on a relatively obscure ghost story. In West Virginia in the late 1890s, Zona Heaster Shue, a newlywed, died. Her death was attributed to natural causes, but and here's where the story takes a right-angle turn into the paranormal the dead woman's mother reported to the prosecutor that her daughter's ghost had told her she was murdered by her husband. After Zona's body was exhumed and examined, her husband was put on trial and found guilty, based, it seems, mostly on the testimony of a ghost. McCrumb's fictional version of the story of the Greenbrier Ghost incorporates some of the real people and events, but this is not a work of nonfiction, and readers should not expect the book to solve the most notable mystery surrounding the story: Did Zona's mother honestly believe her daughter's ghost had fingered her killer, or did she simply concoct a story to put the man behind bars? McCrumb, author of a string of novels about the history and legends of North Carolina, has a real knack for crafting full-bodied characters and using folklore to construct compelling plots.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
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Library Journal Review
The Unquiet Grave : A Novel
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
In McCrumb's (Prayers the Devil Answers) latest novel, which draws on a historical court case that involved the legendary Greenbrier Ghost, dual narrators tell an unsettling story set in 19th-century West Virginia. In 1930, James Gardner, committed to the Lakin State Hospital for the Colored Insane, recounts his role as second chair and defense attorney in the 1897 trial of Edward "Trout" Shue for the murder of his wife. In the second narrative, Mary Jane Heaster relates the story of her daughter, Zona, a beautiful young woman who fell hard for Trout, and paid the ultimate price, "falling" to her death. Determined to find justice for her daughter, Mary Jane pushes the county prosecutor, telling him that Zona's ghost had recalled how she'd been killed by Trout. Can a man be convicted of murder based on the testimony of a ghost? VERDICT In this compelling story, McCrumb continues to relate the dynamic tales of Appalachia and its people. Fans of Julia Keller's "Bell Elkins" mysteries may want to try this. [See Prepub Alert, 3/27/17.]-LH © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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