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ncrabb's review
2.0
It’s close to impossible that I will become interested in a short-story collection. But I’ve long toyed with reading the author’s two other series collections, so I thought this group of short stories would at least give me a glimpse into her writing style. It did at least that, and I liked the style enough to start on the series soon.
That said, I found the collection rather uneven. My favorite and arguably the darkest of the stories was “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” the story of a young man in poverty-stricken Appalachia who labors long and hard for a second-hand bicycle he cobbles together from used parts only to have his bike abused and broken by a neighborhood bully. The story with its chilling consequence is memorable and worthy of your time if you don’t pay any attention to any other stories here.
In “All Brides Are Beautiful,” a reporter craving celebrity status agrees to marry a serial killer only to have that backfire memorably.
There’s a rather unimpressive story in here about Princess Diana that I blew off after a short few minutes. But on balance, this generally has merit. There is profanity in this book, and the mysteries aren’t exactly cozy in case that has bearing on whether you read it. But the writing style carries you along through Appalachia's rolling hills, even into London.
That said, I found the collection rather uneven. My favorite and arguably the darkest of the stories was “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” the story of a young man in poverty-stricken Appalachia who labors long and hard for a second-hand bicycle he cobbles together from used parts only to have his bike abused and broken by a neighborhood bully. The story with its chilling consequence is memorable and worthy of your time if you don’t pay any attention to any other stories here.
In “All Brides Are Beautiful,” a reporter craving celebrity status agrees to marry a serial killer only to have that backfire memorably.
There’s a rather unimpressive story in here about Princess Diana that I blew off after a short few minutes. But on balance, this generally has merit. There is profanity in this book, and the mysteries aren’t exactly cozy in case that has bearing on whether you read it. But the writing style carries you along through Appalachia's rolling hills, even into London.
djrmelvin's review
2.0
McCrumb's Ballad series is like a vacation to the Appalachians where you stay in the house of the best story teller in the region. She's a master of sense of place, and can write in the voice of that region like nobody's business. Some of these stories are in that vein, others come from her other side, the one that writes for the basic who-done-it fan. There's nothing in this collection that stands out from her longer works, unfortunately.
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