The best crime books set in contemporary Appalachia

List by Wesley Browne

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve practiced criminal law in Appalachian Kentucky as both a defense attorney and a prosecutor—not at the same time—for twenty five years. I can tell what’s genuine from what’s contrived in no time flat. Sometimes I can suspend my disbelief, but usually I can’t, so I lean toward books that get the details and intricacies right. If you’re looking for some modern Appalachian crime tales told by people who know how to a tell a story and know how to get the details of the place right, this list is for you.

The books I picked & why

Where All Light Tends to Go

By David Joy ,

Why I love this book

David Joy writes contemporary crime in Appalachia with beauty, ferocity, and wit few can match. This was my first David Joy book and his first novel, but I’ve read everything he’s written since.

I love his books because of his focus on the intricacies of character and place in contemporary Appalachia that people outside the region don’t usually get to see. On top of that, his stuff is always suspenseful as all hell and full of tension. This one is a barn burner.

Where All Light Tends to Go

By David Joy ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Where All Light Tends to Go as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel

“Remarkable . . . This isn’t your ordinary coming-of-age novel, but with his bone-cutting insights into these men and the region that bred them, Joy makes it an extraordinarily intimate experience.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

"Lyrical, propulsive, dark and compelling. Joy knows well the grit and gravel of his world, the soul and blemishes of the place."--Daniel Woodrell

In the country-noir tradition of Winter's Bone meets 'Breaking Bad,' a savage and beautiful story of a young man seeking redemption.

The area surrounding Cashiers, North Carolina, is home…

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Literary fiction

The World Made Straight

By Ron Rash ,

Why I love this book

I always love it when a character gets into a world of trouble with a person he absolutely does not want to cross.

I read anything Ron Rash writes in a flash, but this one’s my favorite and the most crime-centered of them all. I love the blend of perfect prose with the page-turning plot that entwines a civil war era subplot and a whole lot of spot on characters. I started here, but then read everything Rash wrote.

The World Made Straight

By Ron Rash ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The World Made Straight as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Travis Shelton is seventeen the summer he wanders into the woods onto private property near his North Carolina home, discovers a grove of marijuana large enough to make him some serious money, and steps into the jaws of a bear trap. After hours on the forest floor, he's released from the trap by the shrewd and vicious farmer who set it - but can no longer ignore the subtle evil that underlie the life of his small Appalachian community. Before long, Travis has moved out of his parents' home to live with Leonard Shuler, a onetime schoolteacher who now deals…

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Literary fiction

Baggage

By S. G. Redling ,

Why I love this book

I was guessing until the end and was wrong the whole time. This one is a mystery and a thriller set in a small West Virginia college town that involves not one but several good murders.

My favorite thing about SG Redling’s writing besides her ability to slowly build suspense is how she rolls through modern West Virginia without treating it like a gawky curiosity. I thought about this book for a week after I finished it.

Baggage

By S. G. Redling ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Baggage as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Over the years, terrible things keep happening to Anna Ray on February 17. First, there was the childhood trauma she's never been able to speak about. Then, to her horror, her husband killed himself on that date.A year later and a thousand miles away, Anna tries to find solace in the fresh start of a new job in a new place. She takes comfort in her outspoken cousin Jeannie, the confidant and best friend who's there whenever she needs help. On the day of the dreaded anniversary, Anna and Jeannie hit the town, planning to ease the pain with an…

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Thrillers

Clay's Quilt

By Silas House ,

Why I love this book

This was the first book I read written after 2000 that got modern life in Appalachia dead on right and it changed the way I looked at my own writing.

I love the way the past intersects with the present as Clay’s own life flirts with violence, all while he seeks the truth behind his mother’s death during his childhood. I was never sure where it was all headed until the final pages.

Clay's Quilt

By Silas House ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Clay's Quilt as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In his New York Times bestselling debut novel, Silas House introduced himself as an important voice for Appalachia, and indeed, for the entire rural South. In Clay's Quilt, now a touchstone for his many fans, House takes us to Free Creek, Kentucky, where a motherless young man forges his path to adulthood, surrounded by ancient mountains and his blood relatives and adopted kin: his Aunt Easter tied to her faith and foreboding nature; his Uncle Paul, the quilter; the wild girls Evangeline and Alma; and a fiddler whose music calls to Clay's heart. As he struggles to stitch up the…

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The PMS Outlaws

By Sharyn McCrumb ,

Why I love this book

I love this one because it’s funny. Every so often, I need something witty and maybe a little offbeat, but with a crime element, and this does the trick.

Elmore Leonard’s Raylan Givens stories set in Kentucky also fit that bill, but Leonard was an outsider writing about a foreign place he researched, and sometimes those seams show. I like McCrumb because she knows the landscape personally.

The PMS Outlaws

By Sharyn McCrumb ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The PMS Outlaws as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb, internationally acclaimed for the "quiet fire"* of her Appalachian Ballad novels, clearly has a dark side--a wicked, sardonic wit that has prompted critics to compare her to Jane Austen and Jonathan Swift.

Readers and reviewers alike also have lauded Ms. McCrumb for her inspired chronicles of forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson. In her newest tale in the MacPherson saga, McCrumb examines society's fascination with beauty--and the deceptiveness of outer appearances. Elizabeth herself, hospitalized for depression over her missing husband, learns that insanity liberates one from polite hypocrisy, enabling a "crazy lady" to remark: "Anorexia is not a…

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