The Devil's Hearth

The first of DePoy's Fever Devilin mysteries. Fever Devilin (THREE syllables, please-- don't drop that first "i" like whoever designed the cover of my MMPB did) comes back to the home he grew up in, in Blue Mountain, Georgia, when his job in the folklore department of an Atlanta college gets eliminated. He finds his old friend, Deputy Sheriff Skidmore Needle on his front porch, standing watch over a dead body which turns out to be Fever's previously unknown (to him) half brother. Somebody shoots at them from the woods (might just be the Deveroe boys raisin' hell...) The girl he used to love, now a grown widow woman, comes by to see how he's doing. And then things get complicated. Eventually, the sweet folks of Blue Mountain boot Fever's show more butt enough to make him realize that you can too come home again, even if you are a mess. The setting -- a mountain town in Appalachia-- is irresistible for me; the characters are well-drawn and ring true to a reader who came from a similar, if slightly less isolated, place; the story unfolds well, incorporating plenty of authentic folkways and traditions. But I think DePoy was still finding his style with this one. There's just a bit too much stating of the obvious, repetition, and explaining what people's facial expressions were upon seeing or learning something unexpected. Having introduced myself to DePoy with his later Foggy Moskowitz series, and having loved it, I know he got over all that. So I plunged right in to the second Fever outing. I'm looking forward to a long happy relationship with this guy. show less

Rating: 3* of five

The Book Description: Fever Devlin leaves his university job to return to his home in the Georgia Appalachians, prepared to confront the ghosts of his past. But his arrival is greeted with the discovery of a body on the porch of the family cabin -- a corpse that turns out to be a half brother Fever never knew existed.
The truth about the murder and the secrets surrounding Fever's life remain hidden in the determined silence of the locals. He must sort through his quirky family history -- where an adulterous mother, an unnamed father, a secret diary and a priceless church relic become the pieces in a puzzle of grim awakening and dark suspicion.
It takes the brutal murder of an old wood-carver to expose the festering show more secrets of this mountain community where the dead tell no tales -- and a killer plots to ensure Fever joins their eternal silence.

My Review: So. Further proof the hardest reviews to write are the “yeah, it's okay” ones. It's not horrible, it's not excellent, it's not fascinating, it's not repulsive.

Would I read another one? Yeah. Will I seek another one out? No. Fever Devilin (what a dumb name) is not my bestie, like Gamache would be if he was here. It's better than ~meh~ and not as good as it should have been. I liked the folktales scattered around. The secrets, when revealed, aren't all that interesting or surprising. The second murder made me mad, which is why I kept on at all. show less

From Amazon:

Fever Devlin leaves his university job to return to his home in the Georgia Appalachians, prepared to confront the ghosts of his past. But his arrival is greeted with the discovery of a body on the porch of the family cabin -- a corpse that turns out to be a half brother Fever never knew existed.

The truth about the murder and the secrets surrounding Fever's life remain hidden in the determined silence of the locals. He must sort through his quirky family history -- where an adulterous mother, an unnamed father, a secret diary and a priceless church relic become the pieces in a puzzle of grim awakening and dark suspicion. It takes the brutal murder of an old wood-carver to expose the festering secrets of this mountain show more community where the dead tell no tales -- and a killer plots to ensure Fever joins their eternal silence.

My Thoughts:

There was not a lot of mystery... more atmosphere and character. There were a lot of things I enjoyed about it and a few that left me wanting to move the author along. There was good, vivid characters and lush, almost poetic description of the setting, but sometimes more description than I really wanted or needed. There was a lot of back-story, a lot of folklore information...which was very interesting and a real sense of the rural Appalachian communities and people, who are indeed interesting characters. Overall a good, worthwhile read. show less

Fever Devlin is headed home to the Appalachians. To his people. When he arrives, he not only finds a dead body on his porch, but he finds an unsettling feeling that his people are hiding something from him.

This is a rich setting for a mystery, and the author doesn't hesitate to go into great details of the music, landscape and crafts. That is what kept me reading, because for some reason, I couldn't connect with the characters. Also, for me, the descriptions got in the way of the flow of the story. The mystery was standard, but I didn't feel that clues had been given along the way, more like a big reveal at the end. Don't take my word for it though, it could be that my mood did not fit the book at the time of the reading, and you might show more like it fine. show less

The first of the Fever Devlin mysteries. DePoy writes so beautifully that I intend to shelve this book with poetry. The mystery is good, but the description s of the Appalachian Georgia mountains and people are even better.

Wow. I had never heard of DePoy until I ran across this book in the stacks. I was hooked (and reading out loud to share the wonderful prose) within the first few pages. This is witty, colorful, insightful, and richly painted.

The first in the Fever Devilin series. Fever moves back to his mountain home from the big university town and finds a body on his front porch. A lively mystery--I'll continue in the series!