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Description edit
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley…The folk song, made famous by the Kingston Trio, recounts a tragedy in the North Carolina mountains after the Civil War. Laura Foster, a simple country girl, was murdered and her lover Tom Dula was hanged for the crime. The sensational elements in the case... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
A literary triumph—what began as a fictional re-telling of the historical account of one of the most famous mountain ballads of all time became an astonishing revelation of the real culprit responsible for the murder of Laura Foster
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley…The folk song, made... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters/People edit
- Tom Dula: Civil War veteran, ladies' man and mama's boy, Tom doesn't understand the jealousy of women and pays for this eventually.
- Ann Melton: Cousin of Pauline and Tom Dooley's lover.
- Laura Foster: The girl that was killed, leading to the trial of Tom Dooley and Anne Melton.
- James Melton: Husband of Anne Melton.
- Pauline Foster: Cousin to Anne and the main storyteller of this tale.
- Zebulon B. Vance: Former governor of North Carolina, appointed to represent Tom Dula. His first person narration is an alternating voice in the novel.
- Wilson Foster: Add a description of this character.
- Captain Allison
- John Anderson
- Dr. George Carter
- Wash Anderson
- Bates
- Jack Adkins
- Ben Ferguson
- Isbell
- Mrs. Scott
- Harriette
- Cousin Ann
- Grayson
- Cousin Laura
- Hill
- Eliza
- Wilkes
- Johnny
- Lotty
Quotes edit
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“"We have belonged to one another all our lives, and nothing either one of us ever did with anybody else amounted to a hill of beans."”
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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Whatever you have to do to survive shouldn’t count as a sin. It don’t seem fair to me that soldiers get forgiven their trespasses after the peace treaty is signed, but that the rest of us are condemned to eternal guilt by the long memories of our neighbors.
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“People believing it will make it true. That’s as close to truth as we get this side of heaven, son.”
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She was like pokeberries, Ann was—bright and tempting to look at, but pure poison through and through.
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secession, and most folks up here said it was a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.
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I want them both to hang. And if you try to stop it, I’ll see that they lynch you, no matter what. I’ll tell them you raped me.”
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Save a poor enlisted man with no influential family connections? Why, that’s exactly who does die in a war, and everybody knows it—except, I suppose, the friends and family of the poor boy trapped in the thick of it.
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don’t have to spend too long in a group of respectable people before one of them bares poison fangs. The only difference between them and a rattlesnake is that a rattler has the decency to warn you before it strikes. People never do.
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When people pour their boiling anger over my head, I just get colder and slower inside, like a bear in a winter cave, and let them rage, while all the while I am thinking how I will hurt them down the road, when they have even forgotten how they treated me. I never forget anything.
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suffered the sleights of false-hearted lovers, and I had spent their coins, and now I was sickening from their attentions, branded as a loose woman for what the War had made of me. It was hard lines, all round, but I had no one to complain to. I must shift for myself, as ever.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
First Sentence edit
What did I know about murder cases that a man's life should lie in my hands?
Series & Lists edit
This is book 9 of 9 in Ballad. (standard series)
Preceded by The Devil Amongst the Lawyers.
This book is in True Crime: Fictionalized Versions. (community list)
This book is in True Crime: Rendered In Rhyme. (standard series)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Sharyn McCrumb (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-55817-8
Page Count: 311
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-55817-8
Page Count: 311
Awards edit
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813
Subjects edit
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