The Ballad of Frankie Silver
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REVIEW BY STEPHANIE HAINSFURTHER
Reading a novel by Sharyn McCrumb is like listening to the movements of a symphony: separate themes are introduced, explored, and expounded upon, until they come together in a melodic whole. The insistent note McCrumb sounds in The Ballad of Frankie Silver is the story of a young woman who killed her husband, and the justice that awaited her in the town of Morganton, North Carolina, in 1833. It is a true history, now part of Appalachian lore, that relies on the novelist's art to make the case resonate for our times. Sheriff Spencer Arrowood, recuperating from a gunshot wound, has been invited to attend the execution of Fate Harkryder, a man whom he arrested for two gruesome murders in the 1970s. While awaiting the execution, the sheriff delves into the case file of Frankie Silver, a 19th-century woman tried and hanged for killing her husband with an ax. Here, McCrumb's subtle story line passes back and forth in time, as Arrowood reads of Frankie Silver's miserable destiny in the 1832 writings of a court clerk. The connections he draws between Harkryder and Silver's cases lead Arrowood to question his judgment about the guilt of Fate Harkryder. By the time Arrowood discovers further evidence that may exonerate Harkryder, it is almost too late to plead for the convict's life. Unlike most modern mysteries, the plot does not rely on a pool of suspects to bait the reader with clues. Instead, the building suspense is driven by Arrowood's initial curiosity and gradual obsession with Frankie's case, an obsession we come to share as the novel slips between the centuries. Without a hint of preachiness, McCrumb leads us to consider the terrible toll of domestic violence, the assumptions rich and poor make about one another, and the moral dilemma posed by the death penalty. It is to her credit that these solemn issues never get in the way of a good story. Stephanie Hainsfurther is a freelance writer in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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