There are several characters in this book I wanted to “take to task,” for their attitudes, but that was exactly what the author intended. The backstory involving Ansel, his Uncle Len, and Len’s sons worked well in crafting a balance between the murder mystery and family dynamics. Once again, Jazzi and Ansel’s extended family make appearances (I love their Sunday get-togethers and Gram’s predictions), and there are a handful of new characters who add interest and suspicion. Add in a second mystery involving workers at a country club, plus a new-and more difficult house-for Jazzi, Ansel and Jerod to flip, and there is plenty to keep readers glued to the pages. Loved this latest Jazzi mystery! Murder hits close to home when a worker at Ansel’s uncle’s construction site meets with an untimely death. But is Xavier’s death an accident? Or did someone purposely sabotage the retaining wall? One of the workers on his construction site is buried when a retaining wall gives and dirt pours into the trench where Xavier is laying pipe. His uncle Len, who promised him a job when he came to River Bluffs and then let his sons drive him away, calls to ask for help. With gritty and atmospheric prose, Taylor Brown brings to life a perilous mountain and the family who rules it.This time, Jazzi isn’t called to solve murder. When Rory's life is threatened, Granny must decide whether to reveal what she knows.or protect her only grandson from the past.

His grandmother, Maybelline “Granny May” Docherty, opposes this match for her own reasons, believing that 'some things are best left buried.' A folk healer whose powers are rumored to rival those of a wood witch, she concocts potions and cures for the people of the mountains while harboring an explosive secret about Rory’s mother - the truth behind her long confinement in a mental hospital, during which time she has not spoken one word. In the mill town at the foot of the mountains - a hotbed of violence, moonshine, and the burgeoning sport of stock-car racing - Rory is bewitched by the mysterious daughter of a snake-handling preacher. Between deliveries to roadhouses, brothels, and private clients, he lives with his formidable grandmother, evades federal agents, and stokes the wrath of a rival runner. Slowed by a wooden leg and haunted by memories of the Korean War, Rory runs bootleg whiskey for a powerful mountain clan in a retro-fitted '40 Ford coupe. In Gods of Howl Mountain, award-winning author Taylor Brown explores a world of folk healers, whiskey-runners, and dark family secrets in the high country of 1950s North Carolina.īootlegger Rory Docherty has returned home to the fabled mountain of his childhood - a misty wilderness that holds its secrets close and keeps the outside world at gunpoint. “A fresh, authentic, and eloquent new voice in American fiction.” - Robert Morgan, New York Times bestselling author of Gap Creek

The gods of howl mountain