About the book:
It’s 1898. Up on Black Boar Mountain in eastern Kentucky, life is quiet for the small settlement of farmers who work the land around their cabins. But when ten-year old Lydia King unearths an ancient, preserved
body on the seep bog, a curse is let loose. At least that’s what some people believe.
They might be right.
Down in the valley, the Railroad uses convict labor to lay track, hell bent on timbering all of the hillside. Problem is, a trio of violent prisoners feel the work ain’t exactly to their liking. Behind their ring leader Burr Hollis, a predatory, sadistic man whose name inspires fear amongst the hardest of criminals, they take to the hills and leave a wake of their own hell up on Black Boar, as wide and deep as any timber cut.
In the years following, Lydia falls in love and marries a mountain boy, someone as skilled and at home in the woods as she. She discovers an intimate part of herself, and experiences both a physical and spiritual
awakening that allows her to put the trauma behind her . . . or so she thinks.
When Burr Hollis returns for a reckoning with her, she’ll need all of her huntress skills just to stay alive. But she won’t have much of a chance, unless she can reverse the curse of the bog body.
About the author:
Chris McGinley is the author of Coal Black (2019), a collection of gritty short stories, and the historical thriller Once These Hills (2023), both on Shotgun Honey Books. He writes on film and literature for LitHub, Mystery Tribune, Reckon Review and other outlets. McGinley teaches middle school in Lexington, Kentucky where he lives with his wife.
About the conversation partner:
Jody DiPerna is an award-winning journalist and longtime book lover. She is one of the founders of the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. PINJ exists to fill the gaps in the media landscape and tell the stories which often go untold. She has been covering books and literary life Pittsburgh, with a specific focus on writers and books in and about Pittsburgh, the Rust Belt and Northern Appalachia, for more years than she can recount.