Audiobooks by Sharyn McCrumb

From New York Times bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb comes a finely wrought novel set in nineteenth-century West Virginia, based on the true story of one of the strangest murder trials in American history-the case of the Greenbrier Ghost. Lakin, West Virginia, 1930 Following a suicide attempt and consigned to a segregated insane asylum, attorney James P. D. Gardner finds himself under the care of Dr. James Boozer. Fresh out of medical school, Dr. Boozer is eager to try the new talking cure for insanity, and encourages his elderly patient to reminisce about his experiences as the first black attorney to practice law in nineteenth-century West Virginia. Gardner's most memorable case was the one in which he helped to defend a white man on trial for the murder of his young bride-a case that the prosecution based on the testimony of a ghost. Greenbrier, West Virginia, 1897 Beautiful, willful Zona Heaster has always lived in the mountains of West Virginia. Despite her mother's misgivings, Zona marries Erasmus Trout Shue, the handsome blacksmith who has recently come to Greenbrier County. After weeks of silence from the newlyweds, riders come to the Heasters' place to tell them that Zona has died from a fall, attributed to a recent illness. Mary Jane is determined to get justice for her daughter. A month after the funeral, she informs the county prosecutor that Zona's ghost appeared to her, saying that she had been murdered. An autopsy, ordered by the reluctant prosecutor, confirms her claim. The Greenbrier Ghost is renowned in American folklore, but Sharyn McCrumb is the first author to look beneath the legend to unearth the facts. Using a century of genealogical material and other historical documents, McCrumb reveals new information about the story and brings to life the personalities in the trial: the prosecutor, a former Confederate cavalryman; the defense attorney, a pro-Union bridgeburner, who nevertheless had owned slaves; and the mother of the murdered woman, who doggedly sticks to her ghost story-all seen through the eyes of a young black lawyer on the cusp of a new century, with his own tragedies yet to come. With its unique blend of masterful research and mesmerizing folklore, illuminating the story's fascinating and complex characters, The Unquiet Grave confirms Sharyn McCrumb's place among the finest Southern writers at work today.

Sharyn McCrumb (Author), Candace Thaxton, Roger Casey (Narrator)

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Prayers the Devil Answers: A Novel

Sharyn McCrumb, New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Ballad series, examines one of the most famous public executions in US history in her 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.

Sharyn McCrumb (Author), Candace Thaxton (Narrator)

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King's Mountain

Sharyn McCrumb is the New York Times bestselling author of the Ballad novels, which celebrate the rich history of Appalachia. An elegant saga set against the American Revolution, King' s Mountain features John Sevier and his legendary Carolina Overmountain Men, who find themselves defending their families and farms against the troops of a haughty British major.

Sharyn McCrumb (Author), Julia Gibson, Rick Holmes, Tom Stechshulte (Narrator)

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The Ballad of Tom Dooley

The Kingston Trio's folk song "Tom Dooley" tells the story of the murder of Laura Foster, a simple country girl involved with returning Confederate soldier Tom Dula. But Tom was also engaged in a passionate affair with his childhood sweetheart, the beautiful - and married - Ann Melton. One May morning in 1866, Laura Foster stole her father's horse and left home, telling a neighbor that she was eloping to Tennessee. Three months later her body was found in a shallow grave only a few hundred yards from where she was last seen. The sensational elements in the case attracted national attention: a man and his married lover accused of murdering the other woman; the former governor of North Carolina, spearheading the defense; and a noble gesture from the condemned man on the eve of his execution, saving the woman he really loved. With the help of Wilkes County historians and researchers, author Sharyn McCrumb visited the actual sites, studied the legal evidence, and concluded that the traditional story did not make sense. Consulting the maps, the trial transcripts, and the census records, she uncovered a missing piece of the story that will shock those who think they already know what happened. What seemed at first to be a sordid tale of adultery and betrayal has been transformed by new discoveries into an Appalachian Wuthering Heights. The fictional retelling of the historical account became an astonishing revelation of the real motives and the real culprit in the murder of Laura Foster.

Sharyn McCrumb (Author), Eric G. Dove, Shannon McManus (Narrator)

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The Devil Amongst the Lawyers

In 1935, when Erma Morton, a beautiful young woman with a teaching degree, is charged with the murder of her father in a remote Virginia mountain community, the case becomes a cause célÃ¨bre for the national press. Eager for a case to replace the Lindbergh trial in the public's imagination, the journalists descend on the mountain county intent on infusing their stories with quaint local color: horse-drawn buggies, rundown shacks, children in threadbare clothes. They need tales of rural poverty to give their Depression-era readers people whom they can feel superior to. The untruth of these cultural stereotypes did not deter the big-city reporters, but a local journalist, Carl Jennings, fresh out of college and covering his first major story, reports what he sees: an ordinary town and a defendant who is probably guilty. This journey to a distant time and place summons up ghosts from the reporters' pasts: Henry Jernigan's sojourn in Japan that ended in tragedy, Shade Baker's hardscrabble childhood on the Iowa prairie, and Rose Hanelon's brittle sophistication, a shield for her hopeless love affair. While they spin their manufactured tales of squalor, Carl tries to discover the truth in the Morton trial with the help of his young cousin Nora, who has the Sight. But who will believe a local cub reporter whose stories contradict the nation's star journalists? For the listener, the novel resonates with the present: an economic depression, a deadly flu epidemic, a world contending with the rise of political fanatics, and a media culture determined to turn news stories into soap operas for the diversion of the masses.

Sharyn McCrumb (Author), Luke Daniels (Narrator)

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If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him

Sharyn McCrumb's Edgar Award-winning novels featuring Elizabeth MacPherson have captured countless fans who eagerly share this young detective's longings for tantalizing cases and all things Scottish. In the latest New York Times best selling addition to the series, MacPherson yearns for one particular Scot, her missing husband Cameron, while she tries to solve two baffling instances of murder. If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him draws together the stories of two women, unrelated except for a common crime: both are charged with killing their husbands. As their tales of abandonment and abuse unfold, the forensic anthropologist must sift through decades of information while juggling evidence, hearsay, and history. Before she realizes it, MacPherson is involved in a battle of the sexes that hits very close to home. Right up until the final verdict, this moving adventure will keep you guessing the outcome and cheering for the spirited investigator.

Sharyn McCrumb (Author), Barbara Rosenblat (Narrator)

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MacPherson's Lament

Sharyn McCrumb's Edgar Award-winning series features the savvy exploits of forensic anthropologist and not-so-amateur sleuth Elizabeth MacPherson. In MacPherson's Lament, family troubles in Virginia spin out of control, forcing Elizabeth to leave her adopted Scotland to sort out the multiplying problems. Struggling to start a new law practice in Danville, Virginia, Bill MacPherson will handle almost any case, even his parents' divorce. But when he takes on a realtor's job'selling an antebellum mansion for eight elderly daughters of Confederate veterans'he only earns criminal charges. As Elizabeth confronts her panicked sibling, she wonders if even she can untangle this web of deceit and keep her brother out of prison. Best-selling author Sharyn McCrumb's masterful storytelling is guaranteed to captivate readers as she deftly combines the past with the present, humor with suspense. Barbara Rosenblat's first-rate performance leads you on a luxurious armchair tour of the South alongside the spunky Elizabeth.

Sharyn McCrumb (Author), Barbara Rosenblat (Narrator)

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The Windsor Knot

Sharyn McCrumb (Author), Davina Porter (Narrator)

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Highland Laddie Gone

Sharyn McCrumb (Author), Davina Porter (Narrator)

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Once Around the Track

Best-selling author Sharyn McCrumb returns to the heart-racing world of NASCAR with Once Around the Track. Badger Jenkins, a driver past his prime, is recruited by an all-female pit crew to drive their new car. But every woman has a different plan to get the car into the fast lane, and it's not long before the women collide'both on and off the track.

Sharyn McCrumb (Author), Nicole Poole (Narrator)

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Transgressions: Death's Betrayal, Two Novellas from Transgressions

Novellas from Transgressions by Jeffery Deaver and Sharyn McCrumb Forever by Jeffery Deaver: Talbot Simms is an unusual cop”a statistician with the Westbrook County Sheriff Department. When two wealthy couples commit suicide one right after the other, he suspects it isn't suicide, but murder. He must find who was behind it, and how they did it. The Resurrection Man by Sharyn McCrumb: During America's first century, doctors used any means necessary to advance their craft-including dissecting corpses. Sharyn McCrumb brings the pre-Civil War South to life in this story of a man who is assigned to dig up bodies to help those that are still alive.

Jeffery Deaver, Sharyn McCrumb (Author), Carrington MacDuffie, Robert Fass (Narrator)

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Zombies of the Gene Pool

New York Times best-selling author Sharyn McCrumb spices her intriguing mysteries with an insider's eye for detail about the fringes of popular culture. In this companion to Bimbos of the Death Sun, she once again turns her attention to the strange sub-culture of science fiction fandom. Back in the 1950s, eight young men bury a time capsule with their science fiction stories, dreaming of literary immortality. When the surviving members of that group get together for a well-publicized excavation nearly four decades later, their reunion is thrown into chaos by a surprise guest--a reportedly dead writer who threatens to expose the group's dark secrets. And when murder gets added to the agenda, it may become impossible to separate science fact from science fiction. Zombies of the Gene Pool highlights McCrumb's wry wit and complete mastery of the puzzling mystery. Narrator Ruth Ann Phimister captures all the drama and humor of this delightful trip inside the colorful world of science fiction fans.

Sharyn McCrumb (Author), Ruth Ann Phimister (Narrator)

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