In this second in a series, folklorist Fever Devilin is asked to help find two young lovers--Able and Truevine, who happens to be the local witch--who have disappeared after an argument at a church dinner. When the body of the local mortician is discovered near Fever's cabin, the lovers are also wanted for questioning in the murder. The mountain folk will only offer obscure hints to Fever and his friend Dr. Andrews as they try to trace the two before someone else is killed. The reason for the mortician's death becomes horrifyingly clear as Fever uses his knowledge of folklore and the ways of his neighbors to solve the crime and locate the missing lovers while dodging both Truevine's drunken brothers and ghosts from his own past. Vividly evoking Georgia's Appalachia and the people who live there, DePoy seamlessly weaves the folk history of the region into the story. For readers who enjoy Sharyn McCrumb's Appalachian novels, including Songcatcher (2001). --Sue O'Brien Copyright 2004 Booklist

Murder, ghosts, folklore and echoes of a recent, macabre news story combine to make Edgar-winner DePoy's second Fever Devilin adventure (after 2003's The Devil's Hearth) a memorable stroll through the graveyard. Fever, a folklorist and native of the Georgia Appalachians, is host to a vacationing British colleague, Winton Andrews, when they witness a lover's quarrel between Able Carter and Truevine Deveroe. After the lovers disappear and a body turns up, Fever, Winton and Fever's best friend, Sheriff Skid Needle, face the beginning of a mystery whose tendrils spread like kudzu. Fever stands out among Blue Mountain folk not only because he's unusually educated but because, as Winton describes him, "You're near seven feet tall, your hair's white as snow, you're loud, you're a know-it-all, and your name is Fever." Fever's knowledge of his neighbors, their geography and history enables him to interpret signs and clues in a case that grows more complex and deadlier as he pieces it together. Sharp characterization, a broad humorous streak and sumptuous descriptions of country cooking all add to DePoy's beguiling brew. (Feb. 9) FYI: DePoy is also the author of Too Easy (1998), which was a finalist for a Shamus Award, and other mass-market titles in his Flap Tucker mystery series. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A folklorist/amateur detective arranges a Halloween graveyard meeting between a witch and a murderer. Well, maybe Truevine Deveroe isn't really a witch, and the murderer first picked out by Dr. Fever Devilin, a former academic rusticated to the Georgia hills, isn't really a murderer, but up thar in the Blue Mountains, where Celtic folk tales come to life and the local citizenry has one main hobby--keeping secrets--it's easy to be deceived, particularly if your dreams, like Dev's, would give Jung a headache. In a tale as complex as anything in The Golden Bough, which Dev and his visiting friend, Shakespearean scholar Winton Andrews, quote from liberally, they join deputy sheriff Skidmore Needle (The Devil's Hearth, Jan. 2003) to discover why Harding Pinehurst the Third, the area mortician, lies dead and naked in a ravine, poor Truevine wanders the cemetery insisting she's dead too, and her beau, county coroner Able Carton, has gone into hiding. Over 300 bodies will eventually be disinterred in the woods, nearly that many people will turn out to be kinfolk with deep dark pasts, a pack of transients will be found in residence in a crypt, and Dev will accidentally be shot dead, then rejuvenated ten minutes later. Literately loony, with excurses on pan-fried corn, tombstone epitaphs, the Roman origin of bobbing for apples, and appropriate death messages from the Bard. The ending's a tad flat, but what a spirited ride to get to it. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Having returned to his roots in the Appalachians, folklorist Fever Devilin (The Devil's Hearth) encounters murder once again. After authorities accuse his cousin of killing a missing girl and a local mortician, Fever investigates and is reminded of an old folk story. A solid second. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.