McCRUMB, Sharyn 1948-

PERSONAL: Born February 26, 1948, in Wilmington, NC; married David McCrumb (a corporate environmental director), January 9, 1982; children: Spencer, Laura. Education: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A., 1970; Virginia Polytechnic Institute, M.A., 1985.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Dutton Publishing, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014.

CAREER: Full-time novelist and lecturer, 1988—. Smoky Mountain Times, Bryson City, NC, reporter; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, assistant film librarian, 1981-82, university film librarian, 1982-88, Appalachian studies teacher, 1983—, adjunct professor of communications and journalism, 1986-88. Speaker at institutions, including University of Bonn, the American Library (Berlin, Germany), Oxford University, the Smithsonian Institution, and at literary festivals and universities throughout the U.S.

AWARDS, HONORS: Best Appalachian Novel Award, Appalachian Writer's Association, 1985, for Lovely in Her Bones, and 1992, for The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter; Edgar Award, Mystery Writers of American, 1988, for Bimbos of the Death Sun; New York Times Notable Book citations, 1990, for If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, and 1992, for The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter; Los Angeles Times Notable Book citations, 1992, for The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, and 1994, for She Walks These Hills; Agatha Award, Novel, 1995, for If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him …; Outstanding contribution to Appalachian Literature, Appalachian Writer's Association, 1997; Appalachian Writer of the Year Award, Shepherd College, 1999; Wilma Dykeman Award for Regional Historical Literature, East Tennessee Historical Society, 2003; She Walks These Hills received the Nero Award, Agatha Award, Anthony Award, and the Macavity Award; Macavity Award for best novel, for If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O; Chaffin Award, Morehead State University; Plattner Award, Berea College.

WRITINGS:

"elizabeth macpherson" series

Sick of Shadows, Avon (New York, NY), 1984.

Lovely in Her Bones, Avon (New York, NY), 1985.

Highland Laddie Gone, Avon (New York, NY), 1986.

Paying the Piper, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 1988.

The Windsor Knot, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 1990.

Missing Susan, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 1990.

MacPherson's Lament, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 1992.

If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him …, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 1995.

The PMS Outlaws, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2000.

"ballad" series

If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, Scribner's (New York, NY), 1990.

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, Scribner's (New York, NY), 1992.

She Walks These Hills, Scribner's (New York, NY), 1994.

The Rosewood Casket, Dutton (New York, NY), 1996.

The Ballad of Frankie Silver, Dutton (New York, NY), 1998.

The Songcatcher, Dutton (New York, NY), 2001.

Ghost Riders, Dutton (New York, NY), 2003.

other

Bimbos of the Death Sun ("Jay Omega" series), TSR Books (Lake Geneva, WI), 1987.

Our Separate Days (short stories), Rowan Mountain Press (Blacksburg, VA), 1989.

Zombies of the Gene Pool ("Jay Omega" series), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1992.

Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Other Stories, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Contributor to Partners in Crime: A Mystery Anthology, edited by Elaine Raco Chase, Signet, 1994. Editor of Appalachian Fiction reprint series, University of Tennessee Press, 1997—.

ADAPTATIONS: The Ballad of Frankie Silver was adapted to audiotape, Dove Audio, 1998; Highland Laddie Gone, Paying the Piper, The Songcatcher and The Windsor Knot were also adapted as sound recordings.

SIDELIGHTS: Sharyn McCrumb, who has won several major literary awards for her southern crime fiction, likens her bestselling books to Appalachian quilts. "I take brightly colored scraps of legends, ballads, fragments of rural life, and local tragedy, and I piece them together into a complex whole that tells not only a story, but also a deeper truth about the culture of the mountain South," McCrumb said in an interview in Armchair Detective. Her signature style traces the connection between the culture of the British Isles and the Appalachian Mountains of east Tennessee, incorporating elements from such distinct genres as historical fiction, mystery, and fantasy.

A voracious reader even as a child, McCrumb was seven when she knew that she wanted to be a writer. Reading a book a day nurtured an early love for storytelling, a trait that ran in her family. McCrumb's great-grandfathers were circuit preachers in North Carolina's Smoky Mountains, riding horseback from community to community. She attributes her own talent to these ancestors. Her father's family lived in the Smoky Mountains that divide North Carolina and Tennessee in the late 1700s. McCrumb's books also delve into other branches of her family tracing back to her Scottish ancestor Malcolm McCourry, who, as legend had it, was kidnapped when he was a boy living on Islay in the Hebrides in 1750 and was forced to work as a ship cabin boy. He grew up to become an attorney in New Jersey, fought in the American Revolution, and settled in Mitchell County, North Carolina, in 1794.

McCrumb grew up in North Carolina close to Chapel Hill and graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "I wanted to be an English major, but my father said that there was no future in that," McCrumb said in the Armchair Detective interview. "So I majored in Communications and Spanish and therefore could have been a Cuban disk jockey, but as it was I did journalism for a while and all those sorts of things that liberal arts majors do while they're trying to figure out what they want to be. Finally, after about ten years of that sort of thing I went back and got my master's in English [from Virginia Tech], damn it. And then I became a writer."

During that discovery period, McCrumb taught journalism and Appalachian Studies at Virginia Tech. She also worked as a newspaper reporter at a small newspaper in Bryson City in the North Carolina mountains—in fact, her popular "Ballad" series features a small-town newspaper. Since 1988 she has worked full-time writing books and lecturing at halls around the world, including at the University of Bonn, the American Library in Berlin, Oxford University, the Smithsonian Institution, and at literary festivals and universities throughout the United States.

McCrumb's first book, Sick of Shadows, introduces the southern-born heroine Elizabeth MacPherson, a forensic anthropologist who "finds death all over the place but more often than not in Scotland," according to Peter Robertson in Booklist. MacPherson attends the wedding of her cousin, Eileen Chandler, to a man nobody much likes because they suspect he is after her two hundred thousand dollar inheritance. A murder occurs before the wedding, and everyone in the wedding party becomes a suspect.

Highland Laddie Gone and Paying the Piper are also part of the "MacPherson" series. Highland Laddie Gone centers around Elizabeth's adventures at the Scottish-American Highland Games. There is no shortage of suspects when the head of the Campbell Clan is murdered; it seems everyone wanted him dead. Paying the Piper is about a crew of American and British archaeologists—amateurs and experts alike—who meet during an archaeological dig into prehistoric burial rites on a small Scottish island. Suspense builds when an American is found dead in his tent, and then another crew member dies mysteriously. MacPherson looks for the reason behind the deaths.

In The Windsor Knot MacPherson rushes to marry her Scottish fiancé because he has been invited to the Queen's garden party and only immediate relatives of the guest share such an invitation. When Elizabeth arrives in Georgia for the wedding preparations, she encounters a mystery about a local woman's husband who has apparently died twice—several years apart. "McCrumb writes with a sharp-pointed pen," according to Charles Champlin in the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Marilyn Stasio of the New York Times Book Review stated, "Whenever Sharyn McCrumb suits up her amateur detective, Elizabeth MacPherson, it's pretty certain that a trip is in the offing and that something deadly funny will happen on the road."

In Missing Susan MacPherson takes a busman's holiday of England's most notorious murder sites. Unknown to her, the tour guide—catty Rowan Rover—plans to murder one of the other tourists. According to Ira Hale Blackman in Armchair Detective, Missing Susan is "a strong, but humorous, cozy-thriller." In another novel, MacPherson's Lament, Elizabeth travels to Virginia to save her lawyer brother, Bill, from a charge that could land him in prison. If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him … also includes Bill. The book tells of a jilted wife who kills her former husband and his new bride; a middle-aged woman whose husband has brought home a sixteen-year-old girl to serve as his second wife; and a female sculptor who wants Bill to challenge laws that prohibit her from marrying a dolphin. McCrumb manages "not only to make a reader laugh out loud but also to shed a tear or two," according to Pat Dowell in the Washington Post Book World.

The PMS Outlaws starts with a surprising development: Elizabeth MacPherson's husband has disappeared at sea, and she has committed herself to a mental institution to deal with the anxiety. One of her fellow patients has an illicit connection to an old man who happens to live in a mansion that Elizabeth's brother, Bill, has just purchased for his firm. At the same time, an old acquaintance from Elizabeth's days as a law student has teamed up with a criminal client to form the PMS Outlaws, who rob men and leave them tied up in compromising positions. Soon, Bill's law partner A. P. Powell is on their trail, essentially abandoning his practice to track down the notorious thieves. Library Journal reviewer Lisa Bier found much of the book implausible and the ending "unfulfilling and anticlimactic." A Publishers Weekly reviewer, however, found it a "humorous, fast-paced story," noting that "what keeps the pages turning is a desire to see Elizabeth and Powell find their way out of their obsessions." Booklist contributor Connie Fletcher also commended the book, observing that "her characters have breadth and believability, providing fresh and furious insights on this wacky road trip."

McCrumb won a 1988 Edgar Award for Bimbos of the Death Sun, a "send-up of science fiction fandom," according to Edward Bryant in Locus. The novel introduces Dr. James Owen Mega, a university professor who, under the pseudonym "Jay Omega," has published some science fiction novels, and fellow professor Marion Farley. In the sequel, Zombies of the Gene Pool, James and Marion attend a reunion of science fiction writers and fans. The weekend includes the opening of a time capsule buried beneath a lake and, of course, a murder. A critic in Kirkus Reviews applauded the work, saying that McCrumb's "deadpan humor and bull's-eye accuracy skewers the science fiction genre, its eccentric authors, outlandish fans, and their nitpicking fanzines." A reviewer for Analog: Science Fiction/Science Fact was not impressed by Zombies of the Gene Pool, though, calling it "not terribly complex, subtle, or difficult." Armchair Detective's Blackman nevertheless found the work "sensitive, funny, and clever."

Some of McCrumb's most widely read and acclaimed books are from the "Ballad" series, which includes If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. McCrumb told Robertson in Booklist that these stories are important to her because they are set in Appalachia, where her ancestors from Scotland first settled. If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O takes place in Hamelin, Tennessee, where a series of gruesome crimes occur while preparations are underway for the twentieth reunion of Hamelin High's class of 1966. The classmates' internal struggles are also represented; some of the book's characters are dealing with losses suffered in Vietnam, and several of the women feel trapped by their own expectations of being both the ideal mother and the career-oriented superwoman. Kathleen Maio, writing in the Wilson Library Bulletin, wrote that McCrumb tries to include too many issues: "Because McCrumb is trying to say so much about an entire generation, her narrative remains frustratingly unfocused"; she added that the main character, Peggy Muryan, was weak because she became a "group portrait" of the class of 1966. However, Maio concluded that the book is a "worth-while read by a talented writer."

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter concerns Nora Bonestell, an elderly Tennessee mountain woman who is said to have "the Sight," a gift of clairvoyance that allows her to foretell tragic events. The story focuses on the slaughter of a new family in the area during a teenager's murderous rampage; a fire that kills a mother leaving her young child orphaned; and incidents of cancer and stillbirths attributed to a polluted river. Marilyn Stasio stated in the New York Times Book Review that McCrumb "writes with quiet fire and maybe a little mountain magic about these events and the final, cleansing disaster that resolves them…. Like every true storyteller, she has the Sight." Champlin noted in the Los Angeles Times Book Review that McCrumb is one of "the funniest crime writers…. But she can also be movingly serious, a side of her versatility wonderfully displayed in The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter." He went on to say that McCrumb makes readers care about the characters and leaves them believing "that what has gone on has been not invention but experience recaptured."

A Publishers Weekly reviewer said that in She Walks These Hills, the third novel in the "Ballad" series, McCrumb "weaves … colorful elements into her satisfying conclusion as she continues to reward her readers' high expectations." The novel takes place in the hills and hollows of present day Appalachia, and McCrumb strings together an intriguing cast of characters: the ghost of Katie Wyler, a teenager kidnapped by Shawnees in 1779; Hiram Sorley, an elderly escaped convict who cannot recall recent events because of a rare mental illness; Sorley's former wife and daughter; a radio talk show host interested in Sorley's past; and a frightened girl with an abusive husband and a demanding baby. Mary Carroll surmised in Booklist that McCrumb revels in her homeland, "probes the multilayered puzzles of past and present, and meditates on human suffering and the survival instinct with sensitivity and compassion." New York Times critic Clyde Edgerton noted that in She Walks These Hills McCrumb "handles several scenes deftly by not overexplaining. In these, the economy allows the reader to visualize action that is not intrusively described." Edgerton went on to say, however, that overwriting in other scenes bogs the story down, as does inappropriately placed literary references. He concluded that the novel is "an interesting story, but distractions limit its effect."

The Ballad of Frankie Silver and The Rosewood Casket continue the "Ballad" series. The Ballad of Frankie Silver is an examination of capital punishment. Sheriff Spencer Arrowood, haunted by his role in the case of death row inmate "Fate" Harkryder, delves once more into the case, as well as the 1833 hanging of Frankie Silver, an eighteen-year-old and the first woman hanged for murder in North Carolina. In a Booklist review of The Rosewood Casket, Emily Melton wrote that what is most notable about this story is "the aptness of McCrumb's observations about people and life." The novel focuses on Old Man Stargill, who is dying, and his four sons, who are called to his bedside to fulfill his wish that they build him a rosewood casket. As the sons come together, long-simmering family tensions and long-forgotten tragedies surface. "In an earlier life, McCrumb must have been a balladeer, singing of restless spirits, star-crossed loves, and the consoling beauty of nature," Maureen Corrigan noted in the Washington Post Book World.

The Songcatcher "continues the series' tradition of a multi-layered story full of the history, spirit and flavor of the Appalachian Mountains," according to Kliatt contributor Melody Moxley. The novel takes place in two time periods, weaving together the story of Malcolm, an eighteenth-century Scotsman who settled in the region, and his descendant Lark McCourry, a contemporary country musician trapped in a small plane that has crash landed. What binds them together is "The Rowan Stave," a song that Malcolm learned while crossing the Atlantic and passed down as a family legacy, but which has nearly been lost when Lark rediscovers it. Somewhat disappointed, Library Journal reviewer Lisa Bier felt that "the sections that take place in contemporary times are more enjoyable than the interruptions from the past." A different Library Journal contributor, Nancy R. Ives, however, found that the "author blends the historic and contemporary threads smoothly, building suspense as the story progresses."

Ghost Riders again weaves past and present as a regiment of Civil War ghosts rides through the hills, trying to recruit the few living souls who can see them. When a group of Civil War re-enactors comes on the scene, the ghosts begin to turn up at their campsite, angered at the inaccuracies and wrongheadedness they see in these amateurs. As a Kirkus Reviews contributor explained, "Deep, deep under the surface of Union and Confederate ideology teem the Appalachian folk for whom 'the wrong side was to take a side' in the War Between the States." As an example, McCrumb intersperses the tale of Keith and Melinda Blalock into the story. When Keith, a Union sympathizer, is drafted into the Confederate army, his wife, Melinda, cuts off her hair and goes with him as his younger brother, Sam. After purposely getting themselves discharged, they haunt the hills as do-gooder outlaws, their fame growing with every daring act. McCrumb also weaves in the story of Zebulon Baird Vance, whose enormous talents take him to Congress and a field command before election as governor of North Carolina leaves him feeling helpless as the Civil War renders all the old political realities obsolete. "McCrumb writes high-spirited historical fiction, her lush dense narratives shored up by thorough research and convincing period detail," concluded a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

McCrumb, who lives in a Virginia Blue Ridge farmhouse with her husband, David, and their children, Spencer and Laura, also wrote Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Other Stories, her first story collection. In the introduction to the work, McCrumb tells readers that spending her childhood in the mountains gave her a colorful outlook on life. It was, she said, "a wild, exciting place," adding that "the quiet tales of suburban angst so popular in modern fiction are Martian to me." McCrumb explained in the Armchair Detective interview that she hoped to change how people feel about Appalachia, which is often stereotyped as culturally backward, with the "Ballad" series: "I think if people know more about the culture of the mountains, perhaps, I could do something to change that stereotype." She added, "I want to show them how much history we have and what real connections there are within the culture."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Analog: Science Fiction/Science Fact, June, 1993, review of Zombies of the Gene Pool, p. 166.

Armchair Detective, spring, 1992, Ira Hale Blackman, review of Missing Susan, p. 234; fall, 1992, Ira Hale Blackman, review of Zombies of the Gene Pool, p. 500; fall, 1995, interview with Sharyn McCrumb.

Belles Lettres, fall, 1994, Bettina Berch, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 69.

Booklist, March 15, 1992, Peter Robertson, reviews of The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and Zombies of the Gene Pool, p. 1340, and "The Booklist Interview: Sharyn McCrumb," p. 1341; November 1, 1992, Donna Seaman, review of MacPherson's Lament, p. 467; March 15, 1993, Karen Harris, review of Highland Laddie Gone (audio recording), p. 1369; April 15, 1994, Karen Harris, review of The Windsor Knot (audio recording), p. 1547; August, 1994, Mary Carroll, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 1989; September 15, 1995, Joseph Rice, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 184; March 15, 1996, Emily Melton, review of The Rosewood Casket, p. 1219; September 15, 1997, Emily Melton, review of Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Other Stories, p. 210; December 15, 1998, Karen Harris, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 761; April 15, 1999, Mary McCay, review of The Ballad of Frankie Silver, p. 1542; June 1, 2000, Joanne Wilkinson, review of The Rosewood Casket, p. 1850; July, 2000, Connie Fletcher, review of The PMS Outlaws, p. 2014; May 15, 2001, Connie Fletcher, review of The Songcatcher, p. 1733; June 1, 2003, Carrie Bissey, review of Ghost Riders, p. 1744.

Book Report, November-December, 1992, Jim Walz, review of The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, p. 43.

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 1992, review of Zombies of the Gene Pool, p. 22; May 1, 2003, review of Ghost Riders, p. 635.

Kliatt, May 2002, Melody Moxley, review of The Songcatcher, p. 20.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, December 17, 2003, Rebecca Stumpf, review of The Ghost Riders, p. 1.

Library Journal, March 15, 1992, Jackie Cassada, review of Zombies of the Gene Pool, p. 125; July, 1993, Gretchen Browne, review of Paying thePiper, p. 148; March 15, 1995, Kristin Jacobi, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 110; May 1, 1995, Rex E. Klett, review of If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him …, p. 136; September 1, 1997, Judith Kicinski, review of Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Other Stories, p. 222; April 1, 1998, Laurel Bliss, review of The Ballad of Frankie Silver, p. 124; September 1, 2000, Lisa Bier, review of The PMS Outlaws, p. 256; July, 2001, Lisa Bier, review of The Songcatcher, p. 125; December, 2001, Nancy R. Ives, review of The Songcatcher (audio version), p. 198; June 15, 2003, review of Rewriting the Civil War, p. 100; January, 2004, Nancy R. Ives, review of Ghost Riders, p. 184.

Locus, June, 1992, Edward Bryant, review of Zombies of the Gene Pool, p. 21.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 8, 1984, Kristiana Gregory, review of Sick of Shadows, p. 7; September 9, 1990, Charles Champlin, review of The Windsor Knot, p. 10; April 12, 1992, Charles Champlin, review of The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, p. 12.

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September, 1992, Orson Scott Card, review of The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, p. 33; April, 1993, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, review of Zombies of the Gene Pool, p. 6.

New York Times, January 8, 1995, Clyde Edgerton, review of She Walks These Hills.

New York Times Book Review, May 20, 1990, Marilyn Stasio, review of If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, p. 53; October 14, 1990; September 15, 1991, Marilyn Stasio, review of Missing Susan; April 19, 1992, Marilyn Stasio, review of The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter; January 8, 1995, Clyde Edgerton, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 16; May 19, 1996, Marilyn Stasio, review of The Rosewood Casket, p. 21; January 18, 1998, Jack Sullivan, review of Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Other Stories, p. 17; May 3, 1998, Marilyn Stasio, review of The Ballad of Frankie Silver, p. 28.

Publishers Weekly, February 23, 1990, Sybil Steinberg, review of If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, p. 207; April 13, 1990, Rosemary Herbert, "Aiming Higher; Some of Today's Top Crime Writers Are Breaking New Ground in Terms of Setting, Sleuths and Motivation," p. 30; July 27, 1990, Sybil Steinberg, review of The Windsor Knot, p. 225; August 9, 1991, review of Missing Susan, p. 46; January 13, 1992, review of Zombies of the Gene Pool, p. 49; March 9, 1992, review of The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, p. 50; August 29, 1994, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 63; March 27, 1995, review of If I'd Killed Him When I'd Met Him …, p. 78; April 1, 1996, review of The Rosewood Casket, p. 59; August 25, 1997, review of Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Other Stories, p. 47; March 16, 1998, review of The Ballad of Frankie Silver, p. 57; August 28, 2000, review of The PMS Outlaws, p. 60; May 14, 2001, review of The Songcatcher, p. 51; May 19, 2003, review of Ghost Riders, p. 49.

School Library Journal, September, 1990, Kathleen Maio, review of If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, p. 106, and Pam Spencer, review of If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, p. 266; March, 1995, Pam Spencer, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 236.

Virginia Quarterly Review, spring, 1995, review of She Walks These Hills, p. 59.

Wall Street Journal, November 9, 1994, Tom Nolan, review of She Walks These Hills, p. A20.

Washington Post Book World, August 18, 1985, review of Lovely in Her Bones, p. 13; June 18, 1995, Pat Dowell, review of If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him …, p. 11; April 21, 1996, Maureen Corrigan, review of The Rosewood Casket, p. 7; July 15, 2001, Judith Warner, review of Chords of Memory, p. 4.

Wilson Library Bulletin, September, 1984, Kathleen Maio, review of Sick of Shadows, p. 55; September 1990, Kathleen Maio, review of If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, pp. 106-107; December, 1993, Preston Hoffman, review of Paying the Piper (audio recording), p. 99.

online

Sharyn McCrumb Home Page, http://www.sharynmccrumb.com (May 18, 2004).*