Briefly Noted

“…I will keep this book forever in my collection because no one cooking today is doing more to help the Southern culinary flame burn brighter.”

“. . . a beautifully wrought hymn of praise to readers and book-lovers in the most sacred of places, the libraries where we find both.”

“Lyrically written and expertly plotted, moody and elegantly thrilling, it will hook you from page one all the way to the shocking end. This haunting follow-up to his stellar debut THE DARKEST TIME OF NIGHT firmly cements Finley in the who’s who of today’s thriller writers….Perfect summer reading.”

“A riveting fictional meditation on the persistent drive to find acceptance and connection.” (

“Based on years of research, the diaries, memoirs, literature, and journalism collected here shed light on various historical and cultural aspects of the Great Smokies, from Smoky Mountain folkways and religion, to the Civil War era and the Cherokee Indians.”

“Priests, sisters, reverends, rabbis, physicians, nurses, hearse drivers, gravediggers, retired military, an unashamed madam, a gambler…Some survived. Others paid the ultimate price. And only one person can hear the voices of the dead.”