Sharyn McCrumb – She Reads Novels

Sharyn McCrumb is a name I remember from about fifteen years ago when I read two of the books in her Ballad mystery series, She Walks These Hills and The Ballad of Frankie Silver, both set in the Appalachian Mountains and steeped in history and folklore. I know that I enjoyed those two books, but the details have faded from my mind now, so when I saw this new novella available on NetGalley I couldn’t wait to read it and reacquaint myself with Sharyn McCrumb’s work. I hadn’t even realised that she had been continuing to write Ballad novels and that there are ten in the series now!

Nora Bonesteel’s Christmas Past is described as a novella, but it’s really two separate short stories which alternate with each other throughout the book. In the first, we join Sheriff Spencer Arrowood and his deputy Joe LeDonne who have been given the unwelcome task of arresting a man on Christmas Eve. Arriving at the alleged criminal’s home – a remote mountain farm – they encounter problems they had never expected and end up spending Christmas Eve in a very unusual way.

Meanwhile, Nora Bonesteel, an elderly woman with the gift of ‘the Sight’, is being visited by her new neighbour, Shirley Haverty, who has moved into the house Nora still thinks of as ‘the old Honeycutt place’. The Havertys have bought the house as a summer home but have decided to stay on this year and experience a traditional Christmas in the mountains. After a few unexplained mishaps Shirley has become convinced that the house is haunted…and that the ghost doesn’t seem to approve of their bright pink artificial Christmas tree! Can Nora use her psychic abilities and her memories of the house in days gone by to lay the ghost to rest?

This is a short book and could easily be read in one or two sittings (though I didn’t manage that due to choosing a busy time to start reading it). It’s not necessary to have read any of Sharyn McCrumb’s previous books, though I did remember the characters of the Sheriff, Joe LeDonne and Nora Bonesteel.

The two stories in the book are, as I’ve said, completely independent of each other and never come together at all, not even at the end. I found this a bit disappointing and I think it might have been better if they had been presented as two entirely separate stories rather than giving us a few pages of one followed by a few of the other. What the stories do have in common is the Appalachian setting and the fact that they both deal with the subjects of Christmas traditions and the mountain lifestyle.

Nora Bonesteel’s Christmas Past doesn’t have the depth or complexity of the longer novels in the Ballad series and unlike the full-length books there’s no mystery to be solved, but it’s an enjoyable, undemanding read and perfect for the Christmas season.

And now I’m going to end this post on an appropriate note by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! I should be back between Christmas and New Year with another winter-themed review and my end-of-year lists.

Remember These? is a series of posts looking at some of the books I recorded in my old reading diary. The diary spanned my teenage years to my early twenties, so most of the books mentioned below will have been read during the 1990s and although I’ve included my original ratings, these do not necessarily reflect what I would feel about the books if I read them again today!

I gave the books ratings out of 5. The symbol * means I loved the book. X means I didn’t finish it.

Books beginning with ‘B’

Here are a selection of the books that appeared on the ‘B’ page of my notebook.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (5/5*)
This was one of my childhood favourites, but is a classic that can be enjoyed by adults too. If you’ve never read it, it’s told through the eyes of a horse called Black Beauty and highlights the way horses can suffer through the cruel treatment of their owners. Needless to say, this is yet another children’s book that makes me cry! The edition I have is a hardback with beautiful colour illustrations – sorry about the poor quality photo, but I couldn’t find the cover of this particular edition online anywhere.

Bloodstream by Tess Gerritsen (5/5)
It’s funny because I’ve read a few reviews of Tess Gerritsen books recently and didn’t take much notice of them, thinking that they didn’t sound like my type of books. In fact, I would have sworn that I had never even read one. Well, obviously I was wrong. I have read one and apparently I loved it!

Born of the Sun by Gillian Cross (5/5)
Gillian Cross is a British author best known for her children’s series, The Demon Headmaster. She also wrote this book, which I couldn’t remember at all until I read the synopsis: “For years, Paula and her father have dreamed and talked about trying to find the lost city of Atahualpa. And now, without warning, Paula is taken out of school and finds her dream come true…But as they descend towards the jungle, Paula senses that all is not quite as it should be. Why is her father so moody and impatient? And why does he insist that the expedition is being shadowed by sinister enemies?”

Borderliners by Peter Hoeg (4/5)
Peter Hoeg is best known for the thriller Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow. After reading Miss Smilla, I remember looking for more of Hoeg’s books and came across this one in the library. Although I appear to have enjoyed this book at the time, I can’t remember much about it now except that it was about a group of students at a private school in Denmark who discover that they’re being used as part of a social experiment.

The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb (4/5)
Sharyn McCrumb wrote several novels that deal with Appalachian history and folklore. I remember reading this one, The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter and She Walks These Hills, and I enjoyed all of them. The Ballad of Frankie Silver takes as its starting point two murders separated by more than a century and looks at the ways in which the justice system has changed over the years.

Bloody Roses by Natasha Cooper (3/5)
This was one of a series of murder mystery books featuring the detective Willow King who leads a double life as both a civil servant and a romantic novelist. It seems that I used to read a lot of crime fiction and murder mysteries, which is interesting because they’re not genres that I read very much at all anymore.

The BFG by Roald Dahl (3/5)
I think I probably read all of Roald Dahl’s children’s books, most of them more than once. This one was never one of my favourites though and although I can remember some of the characters (Sophie, the ‘Big Friendly Giant’, the other evil giants) I can’t really remember the plot.

Boy by Roald Dahl (3/5)
This is an autobiographical work by Roald Dahl, in which he shares stories about his childhood years. It’s written in the same lively, humourous style as his fiction.

Bright Island by Mabel L Robinson (X)
I’m intrigued by this one because I don’t remember it at all, not even the title. I didn’t like it enough to even finish it and yet it apparently won a Newbery Honor in 1938. Can anyone remind me what it was about?

Do you remember reading any of the books mentioned above?

Coming soon… Remember These? Books Beginning with ‘C’.