In the late 1860s, former Confederate soldier Tom Dula was executed for the murder of fiancée Lucy Foster. He steadfastly denied his guilt, and there is evidence that Ann Melton, Dula's former lover, who had married, was either an accomplice or the actual killer. The story has become a legend, a song (performed memorably by the Kingston Trio, with a name change), and now a work of fiction. Author of the ballad novels, which celebrate Appalachian culture, McCrumb has ongoing appeal.

Forget the Kingston trio folk song and Doc Watson's more authentic version, both of which proclaim Dooley's guilt. Not so, maintains Appalachian author McCrumb (The Devil Amongst the Lawyers) in this novel based on extensive research. In 1866, Tom Dula was a handsome, ne'er-do-well ex-Confederate soldier still bedding his childhood sweetheart, beautiful—and narcissistic—Ann Foster Melton, who had married a more responsible man during Tom's absence. The trouble began when Ann's cousin Pauline Foster became a servant in the Melton household to be near a doctor to treat her "pox" (syphilis). Tom's favors extended also to Pauline (an arrangement Ann urged, in McCrumb's view, to quell gossip about herself and Tom) and to Laura Foster, another cousin, for whose murder in Wilkes County, NC, he was hanged. The events covering several months are related by Pauline as well as Zebulon Vance, the ex-governor of North Carolina, who defended Tom. VERDICT In a story with parallels to Wuthering Heights, McCrumb makes a strong case for a sociopathic servant as the catalyst for the deadly events that ensued. True to the language and culture of its time and place, this latest entry in the Ballad series could be headed for best-sellerdom, given the sensational nature of the crime and the popularity of the song it inspired. [National tour; library marketing; see Prepub Alert, 3/15/11.]—Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

In her latest "Ballad Novel," McCrumb (The Devil Amongst the Lawyers) delves into the history of the song made popular by the Kingston Trio. It's 1866 and no one in the mountains of North Carolina has been left unscarred by the Civil War. This includes the scores of walking wounded Rebel soldiers back from the war, but also the women they left behind, like Pauline Foster, whose encounters with soldiers and drifters have left her with a death sentence in the form of syphilis, a disease that figures prominently among the story's players. Bitter and envious of her beautiful cousin Ann Melton, Pauline nevertheless takes a job as Ann's housemaid while undergoing treatment nearby. Pauline sees patterns and understands connections that no one else sees, and she manufactures drama for her own ends—with tragic results. She is soon intimately involved in the romantic and sexual entanglements of Ann; Ann's husband, James, who Ann married for stability; Ann's lover Tom Dula, her passion from the time they were children; and the women's other cousin, Laura Foster, whose trysts with Tom lead to her murder. Narrated by Pauline and by Zebulon Vance, the former Confederate governor who defended Tom Dula in court, McCrumb's tale is impeccably researched. At times the deliberate accounting of facts and biography does more to show off that research than it does to advance the story, but McCrumb's novel casts light on the often bleak context surrounding characters who have become legend. (Sept.)