The Devil's Hearth

by Phillip DePoy

Book Overview

Fever Devilin is a folklorist and a very recent ex-academic who has decided to return to his family home in the Georgia Appalachians. But his homecoming isn't quite what he expected - he arrives at... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373264925
• ISBN13: 9780373264926
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Wwl Mystery
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

Fire on the Mountain

Phillip DePoy's THE DEVIL'S HEARTH had my full attention from the first word. Few mysteries begin with such power or are told in the lyrical manner of many Appalachian songs. The mountains are ancient, the culture is ancient and the characters are molded from the same fabric. His use of the fogs in the mountains is so vivid I remembered every step I took in front of our car to guide my husband along Butterfly Gap in Tennessee to reach a friend's house. As a metaphor of the fog in Fever Delvin's mind, the ghostliness of the past; it is perfect. This is a later read, as I've previously read the others in the series, but it makes an impact on the reader who can't lay the book down. Read and enjoy every reference, word, allusion of the Fever Devlin stories as he is a master storyteller. Nash Black, author of SINS OF THE FATHERS and QUALIFYING LAPS.

Linger on the Devil's Hearth

Readers who insist on action-packed car chases and hair-raising gun battles, beware. Although there are a fair number of dead bodies in THE DEVIL'S HEARTH, DePoy manages to heighten suspense using subtle interplay between believable, albeit tight-lipped characters. This is often done with what I would call rocking-chair drama -- played out against the fascinating backdrop of a dying culture, with a thoroughly satisfying coming together of the various plot lines at the end. Grab yourself a mug of tea -- or a jug of moonshine -- to savor along with this good story. Linger over your reflections. They're bound to crop up as you read this one.

First in series a true pleaser

The Devil's Hearth by Phillip DePoy is the first book in the Fever Devilin series about a folklorist in the Appalachias of Georgia. Fever "Dev" Devilin returns home to Blue Mountain after a long absence to recover from the loss of his job at Burrison College. Unfortunately he's welcomed by a corpse on his front porch that bears an uncanny resemblance to Dev. With his friends Deputy Skidmore "Skid" Needle and colleage Dr. Winton Andrews, Dev quickly starts investigating the mysterious death and find out who may want him dead. This book is full of twists and turns, most of them in Dev's own narration. As a folklorist, he truly loves the people of his home and their stories and skills. Often the mystery takes a backseat to the explanation of a rope lathe for making ladderback chairs or the story behind a folksong. Dev is torn about his family's unusually twisted past. (Wouldn't you get angry if everyone kept telling you "You know how your mother was"?) The pieces come together slowly even as Dev insists that the mystery itself is far more interesting than the solution. His investigative skills make him the perfect detective and Skid and Andrews make for humorous foils. DePoy alternates violence with quiet humor in a bittersweet way. The villain does a great deal of exposition at the end, but I'm sure DePoy will work out that flaw in future books. Dev is an engaging tourguide through the mountains of Georgia and its people.

Multi-layered brilliance

DePoy has become my favorite author with his two books in this series. I know a bit about folklore and the people of the mountains and they are portrayed accurately and with great compassion here. The mystery is a real one, the characters alive and complete, and the insight into a hidden world -- the world of shape note music, Melungeons, hidden travelers, and front porch conversations -- make this book a warm, inviting place to be. I can't wait for the next one.

superb regional amateur sleuth

When Burrison University English Department shut down his folklore section, Dr. "Fever" Devilin knew it was time to go home to the Georgia Appalachian Mountains. Fever figures that the time is right to write about his home lore yet also put to rest the past that he fled when he first went off to college.He moves back into his family's cabin on Blue Mountain where Fever plans to reacclimatize from the academia think tank world to the more mellow isolated environs. His best friend from childhood, now Deputy Sheriff Skidmore Needle, arrives at the cabin to greet his old buddy, but finds a corpse just outside the edifice prior to the professor's arrival. They quickly learn that the deceased is Fever's half-brother, a blood relative he never knew he had. Fever wonders if perhaps he was the intended victim and if so why. Unable to heed Skidmore's advice, Fever begins making inquiries into who would want either he or his sibling dead.THE DEVIL'S HEARTH is a discerningly written regional amateur sleuth that employs some police procedural elements to enhance the feeling of realism. Fever is a delightful lead protagonist who keeps the story line focused. The secondary cast including his buddy, a university colleague, and locals embellishes a powerful plot that delivers a wonderful look at Appalachia folklore interwoven within well designed who-done-it.Harriet Klausner