A Widow's Curse
A Fever Devilin Novel
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Fever Devilin, a folklorist by inclination and training, was born and raised amongst the hill-country folk of the Georgia Appalachians and it was there that he returned once he decided to leave academia. And he's the perfect person to turn to when the owner of a mysterious medallion, one with some connection to the area, wants to uncover the provenance of the piece. On the surface, it sounds simple enough but in Fever's life, nothing is ever simple. Especially when the medallion's owner is found dead, murdered, in Fever's own house and the papers of Fever's late grandfather, of no intrinsic value, are stolen. And Fever himself in the prime suspect in the murder.
The only clue to the truth behind these confusing events is the medallion itself, which is somehow tied to Fever's secretive family's history. With someone trying to frame him for the murder and other hidden forces hot on the trail of the medallion itself, Fever is wedged tightly between the proverbial ‘rock' and equally proverbial ‘hard place.' And the only possible way out is buried within the uncomfortable hidden truths about his own family that Fever has spent years trying to avoid.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Welsh legends, ghosts, a Cherokee artifact, a valuable portrait all combine in unexpected but ingenious ways in Shamus-finalist DePoy's fourth Fever Devilin mystery (after 2005's A Minister's Ghost), set in the Georgia Appalachians. In past adventures, the folklorist and failed academic has helped Sheriff "Skid" Skidmore investigate murders involving strangers, but this time trouble directly involves Fever's family and heritage, which makes it worse for him and better for the reader. A phone call about an unusual silver medallion purchased from someone in the town of Blue Mountain prompts Fever to invite the caller to visit. When the caller ends up dead in Fever's cabin, Fever has no choice but to untangle the twisted origins of the medallion even when it leads deep into his own family's somewhat sordid past. Adept at clever word play, DePoy has a comfortable command of his characters, their land and their history.