Sharyn McCrumb Books in Order

Elizabeth MacPherson attends her cousin Eileen Chandler's wedding preparations, only for murder to interrupt the celebration. With an eccentric wedding party full of possible suspects, Elizabeth investigates who wanted to prevent the marriage and what lay behind the violence.

An archaeological investigation into a North Carolina community's ancestral land claim is interrupted by murder. Elizabeth MacPherson applies her anthropological knowledge and observations of present-day behavior to uncover the motives concealed beneath the excavation's historical questions.

Elizabeth MacPherson attends the Glencoe Mountain Games, where Americans celebrate Scottish heritage through traditional competitions and festivities. The murder of disliked Colin Campbell, followed by another killing, forces her to investigate rivalries lurking behind the cheerful clan celebrations.

A science fiction convention becomes a murder scene when abrasive fantasy author Appin Dungannon is killed. Fellow guest Jay Omega investigates among devoted fans, gamers, and organizers, in a mystery that satirizes fandom and the author's contentious relationship with readers.

American and British archaeologists gather on a small Scottish island to study prehistoric burial practices. When a member of their mixed professional and amateur team dies suddenly, the excavation becomes a murder investigation for Elizabeth MacPherson.

Short stories and poems by Sharyn McCrumb and Mona Walton Helper reflect life in southern Appalachia. Bringing fiction and verse together, the collection offers two writers’ perspectives on the people and places of the mountain South.

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.

Elizabeth MacPherson's hurried wedding plans are interrupted when a sheriff brings an ornate urn connected to a murder case. Investigating a neighbor's supposedly deceased husband leads her to question whose ashes the widow has kept for years.

Elizabeth MacPherson joins a tour of notorious British murder sites, expecting a journey through criminal history. When the tour itself becomes the setting for a crime, she must examine her fellow travelers and connect present danger with the past.

Elizabeth MacPherson heads to Virginia after her lawyer brother Bill faces fraud charges over the sale of an old mansion. His clients vanish, and Elizabeth follows a trail of deception and resentment toward a secret rooted in the Civil War.

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.

A science fiction fan club reunion becomes the scene of a murder, drawing writer Jay Omega into another investigation. Among old acquaintances and shared genre enthusiasms, he must distinguish convincing stories from actual evidence to identify the killer.

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.

Elizabeth MacPherson becomes the investigator for her brother's Virginia law firm and takes on cases involving troubled marriages and suspicious deaths. Her forensic knowledge, particularly of poisons, helps untangle evidence while the lawyers confront difficult questions about abuse and responsibility.

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.

Two dozen stories combine Appalachian character portraits, suspense, and dark humor. A mountain healer confronts a serial killer, Princess Diana uncovers royal secrets, and a reincarnated victim seeks revenge, while contrasting childhoods illuminate the changing mountain world.

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 short story by Harlan Coben, originally published in the anthology *Malice Domestic 7*. It showcases his signature ability to craft a tight mystery with a clever twist in a compact format.

While Elizabeth MacPherson is hospitalized with depression over her missing husband, her brother's new law office houses an enigmatic elderly resident. His partner pursues an escaped prisoner and fugitive lawyer whose unusual campaign targets men in pickup bars.

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.

A group of travelers takes a memorial pilgrimage honoring NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt. Their shared journey brings personal losses, hopes, and unrealized ambitions into focus, exploring the meaning people find in public heroes, unexpected connections, and second chances.

An all-women stock-car racing team hires male driver Badger Jenkins when financial pressures threaten its future. Through a demanding season, the women responsible for the car and its publicity confront professional barriers, uncertainty about their driver, and life-changing events.

After crashing into a NASCAR fan's funeral, young driver Camber Berkley must choose between jail and teaching local ministers to race stock cars. Their competition will determine who receives a substantial legacy, bringing rivalry, faith, and racing into unlikely contact.

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.

This essay collection examines Appalachian landscape, cultural inheritance, folklore, and the craft of writing about the region. McCrumb discusses Celtic connections, magic realism, Nora Bonesteel's second sight, and the relationship between historical research and fiction.

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.

Mountain shaman Rattler visits Gettysburg to investigate a supernatural aspect of the Civil War. In a second tale, newcomers bring strange beings into his valley, forcing him to confront an intrusion rooted in Celtic magic and dangerous folklore.

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.

An elderly Black attorney recalls defending a husband in the 1897 Greenbrier murder case, where the victim's mother claimed her daughter's ghost revealed the crime. His memories frame a historical novel exploring law, race, grief, and supernatural testimony.