Southern Appalachians, 1963
The sheriff says Lucy Cutler stripped off her clothes to go swimming in the Caney River and was attacked by a horde of copperheads. But she was a modest lady, the water where her clothes were found is too swift for swimming, and copperheads aren't water snakes. A country deputy with a small amount of Native American ancestry is investigating, but he's harassed by local bigots who consider him unfit to enforce the law, and distracted by the pure country sweetness of a Black woman who grew up in a snake-handling church and was the last to see one victim alive. Meanwhile other women die from multiple snakebites, and an armed band of bigots plot to stop a bus carrying freedom riders to the deep South as it passes through their territory. The deputy is game, but he can't win 'em all.

"I kept thinking about this book and its people for weeks after finishing it, and months later I still want to go see where it happened." Dr. Robyn Redinger

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• Nonfiction

• Publication Date: February 23, 2014
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 386 Pages
• File Size: 11 KB