Ballad Books in Order

Former folk star Peggy Muryan moves to a small Tennessee town hoping for solitude, but threatening events follow her. Sheriff Spencer Arrowood must investigate the danger around the newcomer as the town becomes entangled in the singer's troubled past.

Four members of the Underhill family are dead in an apparent murder-suicide. Sheriff Arrowood and Nora Bonesteel, whose second sight reveals unsettling possibilities, question the explanation as further darkness threatens their Tennessee mountain community.

An escaped convict searches Appalachian hills for a home that no longer exists, while a restless eighteenth-century spirit haunts the same landscape. Their journeys intersect with a contemporary murder, weaving mountain history and memory into a suspenseful investigation.

Randall Stargill's approaching death brings his four sons back to their unhappy mountain home. Nora Bonesteel faces a separate burden: arranging for a small box containing a child's bones to be buried with him, reviving questions about the family's past.

The nineteenth-century prosecution of Frankie Silver for her husband's murder is set alongside a later capital case involving young Lafayette Harkryder. The parallel stories examine concealed truths, assumptions about guilt, and the difficulty of preventing a miscarriage of justice.

A modern descendant searches for a ballad carried to America by a Scottish ancestor. Following the song through generations, the novel traces one Appalachian family's history from kidnapping and frontier settlement through war, migration, and the preservation of oral tradition.

The lives of Civil War guerrillas Keith and Malinda Blalock intertwine with mountain memories and modern encounters with restless spirits. Nora Bonesteel and Rattler must confront the lingering dead before historical grievances ignite a clash with the living.

National reporters descend on a Virginia mountain town in 1934 to cover a young teacher accused of killing her father. Rookie journalist Carl Jennings challenges their stereotyped reporting and seeks the truth with help from his gifted cousin Nora Bonesteel.

The murder behind the familiar Tom Dooley ballad is reimagined through the relationships of Tom Dula, Ann Melton, and Pauline Foster. Drawing on historical research, the novel explores jealousy, manipulation, and competing accounts of a North Carolina tragedy.

John Sevier and the Overmountain Men face a British officer's threat to their Appalachian homes during the American Revolution. The novel follows their effort to defend families and farms, bringing regional loyalties and frontier lives into the larger war.

New residents of the Honeycutt house encounter more than old memories when they remain through Christmas. Meanwhile, Sheriff Arrowood and Deputy LeDonne face an unwelcome holiday arrest, in a story where mountain spirits, compassion, and Nora Bonesteel's insight intertwine.

Widowed Ellie Robbins is appointed to finish her husband's term as sheriff in Depression-era Tennessee. Supporting her family now means facing expectations about women's roles, local superstition, and the daunting responsibility of executing a convicted prisoner.