In 10 stories--including a sequel to his novel Serena that brings back the notorious villainess Serena Pemberton--poet and storyteller Ron Rash revisits his familiar southeastern hills for tales of avarice and decency, with characters concisely written but unforgettably vibrant.
In "Neighbors," Rebecca Penland is terrorized by former Confederates who arrive at her homestead to claim her provisions, or worse. But it's a truth that she needs to hide, not the salt and meats, and this from the neighbors she relies on to survive. Another war victim from another era offers helicopter rides over a Smoky Mountain region in "Sad Man in the Sky." When a man counts out cash and asks to fly over a remote ridge so he can drop presents for the kids he's forbidden to see, the pilot recalls other children, ones who once fled his chopper. In "The Baptism," the nefarious Gunter pressures Rev. Yates into a winter immersion baptism, speeding up his plot to marry for property. Justice wins.
In "Ransom," a college woman is kidnapped as revenge for her father's pharmaceutical company's practices, with ironic results. Every story has colorful characters and lessons fitting for their times and our own. But perhaps the most evocative is the titular "In the Valley," with Serena Pemberton's return to the North Carolina hills to log every tree and track down the child whose existence threatened Serena's fortune. Reading the novel is not a prerequisite for appreciating the chilling intensity of Serena's legendary malice. --Cheryl McKeon, bookseller, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.