Prayers the Devil Answers

By Sharyn McCrumb

Book Overview

Sharyn McCrumb, New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Ballad series set in Appalachia, explores the ties between a reluctant female sheriff and a condemned man in this stunning and powerfully written Depression-era novel. Years later, after the tragedy, someone remembered the Dumb Supper and what had happened there. That was the cause of it, they said, because the ritual wasn't a game after all. It really was magic, but magic has rules, and she broke them. Suddenly thrust into the role of primary caretaker for her family following the tragic death of her husband, Ellie Robbins is appointed to serve out his term as sheriff of their rural Tennessee mountain town. The year is 1936, and her role is largely symbolic, except for the one task that only a sheriff can do: execute a convicted prisoner. Ellie has long proven she can handle herself. But becoming sheriff is altogether different, and the demands of the role are even more challenging when she is forced to combat society's expectations for a woman. Soon enough, dark secrets come to light, and Ellie must grapple with small town superstitions and the tenuous ties she shares with a condemned killer as she carves out a place for herself in an uncertain future. "There is no one quite like Sharyn McCrumb. No one better either" ( San Diego Union-Tribune ), and her luscious narrative brings her unforgettable characters to life with the "pure poetry" ( The New York Times Book Review ) that defines her astounding novels. Prayers the Devil Answers combines masterful historical research and captivating folklore to make an atmospheric and suspenseful tour de force.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1476772819
• ISBN13: 9781476772813
• Release Date: May 2016
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Hard to Review

I am a diehard Sharyn McCrumb fan of her ballad series, and I remain so. This is a hard book for me to review as the author has stepped away from the traditional people in her ballad novels and taken more of a historical history turn away, in not only this novel but in several before this, from all the original characters we grew to know an love in the first five of the ballad series. Prayers the Devil Answers was a good story, but it tended to plod along at times. The year is 1936 and Ellie Robbins is suddenly a widow with no income and no way to support her boys in a small town. She convinces the powers that be to let her finish out her late husband's term as sheriff. Nothing really much happens in a small town like this, so she anticipates largely paperwork, which she knows she can handle as she used to help her husband sometimes. When an artist in the town throws his wife off a cliff before witnesses, she suddenly has a murderer on her hands. After the trial, the verdicts says he must be hanged in the town where the crime was committed so that means Ellie must be the executioner. During the time the prisoner is in her jail, Ellie learns a lot about the prisoner, about her late husband and about herself. This was a novel depicting one woman's tenacity and strength in the most harrowing of circumstances.