The Witch's Grave

From Amazon:

Fever Devilin was raised amongst the hill-country people of the deep Georgia Appalachians and their seemingly simple folk ways are in his blood and his soul. His own family, however, was another matter and at sixteen he left home for college, returning only rarely and always under protest. In the years to come, Fever became a noted folklorist of the Appalachian region and a college professor. He never quite adjusted to the realities of city life and academic politics, and has now returned to the deceptively quiet life amongst his people. But below the surface, nothing is ever as quiet and simple as it appears.

When Truevine Deveroe, a local girl reputed to be a witch, goes missing and the local mortician, acknowledged as an show more unpleasant character, turns up dead near Devilin's home, Able Carter, fiancé of the missing girl, is suspected of killing them both. Tied by friendship and long-term enmity to all of the principals, Fever finds himself in the midst of a very difficult situation. To make matters even worse, the brothers of the missing girl are determined to find Carter - who has taken it on the lam - and administer their own brand of justice. With precious little time, lives at stake, and a missing girl to be found, Devilin must unravel the mystery behind this perplexing series of events. A series of events somehow related to the hidden history of the area and the old folk legend of the witch's grave.

My Thoughts:

From the first sentence...No one expected violence at church, or the dead bodies that soon followed it... the read becomes totally involved in the people and the legends of this small mountain community. One shouldn't confuse this with being a `ghost' story. It's a story of people who treasure the old stories and for whom ghosts are part of their culture and lives; they live with the blend of the real and the paranormal, the old ways and the new, for whom a belief in curses can make them be true and where sometimes spells have a natural explanation. Above all, the story is an nontraditional, traditional mystery and a very good one. So... sit back and enjoy the world of Fever Devilin. I certainly did. show less

Fever is implored by his best friend's wife, Girlinda, to find her brother Able and his lady love, Truevine Deveroe (sister of the wild boys we met in the first Fever Devilin outing), who have both gone missing. There's a dead body in a gully, which turns out to be a man who carried a torch for Truvy, which may have sparked an argument that led to Able whacking him so hard he fell down and died. But why is he naked? And what to do with his body, since he was the town's only mortician? Oh, and who are all those shadows creeping around the cemetery---are they living or dead? Will Andrews ever get enough to eat? Another great escape read from the witty DePoy.

Fever Devilin as an academic-turned-sleuth in his own back yard has me alternately in stitches and heartwarming tenderness. DePoy writes well, crafting good characters (even when they are bad).

I wish I had found this series sooner. Fever Devilin is one of the most interesting
characters I have met in a book in a long time. After reading this one, I promptly picked up three more
of this series and plan to follow this series as long as it goes on. The interspersing of folklore tidbits
throughout the story is very interesting to me, and also brings back memories.My great grandparents
told some similar tales, and had some similar habits to the folks in these stories. I love quirky and there
is plenty of quirky to go around here... And they are definitely keepers for a reread someday . I highly
recommend this series.