REVIEW: Gods of Howl Mountain

Gods of Howl Mountain
Author: Taylor Brown

Rory Docherty returns home to North Carolina following the Korean War. He comes home haunted by the war and the loss of a leg. This story has a little bit of everything -- faith healing, bootleg liquor, dark family secrets, greed and violence. The characters are gritty and authentic, creating the long-gone atmosphere of 1950's mountain backwoods NC.

It took me a few chapters to really get into this story. It isn't the sort of book I usually read, but since I live in western NC I really wanted to get a taste of what it was like in the moonshine days. Once I got a bit into the story, I couldn't put the book down. There are portions that made me uncomfortable, but the plot was so mesmerizing I just kept reading. Sort of like an accident on the highway....you don't want to look, but something makes you look anyway.

This is definitely Southern fiction. The characters are authentic and it definitely pulled me into a bygone era. I am glad I live in NC now, and not back then.

Taylor Brown is the author of several books including River of Kings and Fallen Land.

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**