The Devil Amongst the Lawyers: A Ballad Novel

Written by:
Sharyn McCrumb
Narrated by:
Luke Daniels

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
3
Narrator
1
Release Date
June 2010
Duration
9 hours 47 minutes
Summary
In 1935, when Erma Morton, a beautiful young woman with a teaching degree, is charged with the murder of her father in a remote Virginia mountain community, the case becomes a cause célèbre for the national press.

Eager for a case to replace the Lindbergh trial in the public's imagination, the journalists descend on the mountain county intent on infusing their stories with quaint local color: horse-drawn buggies, rundown shacks, children in threadbare clothes. They need tales of rural poverty to give their Depression-era readers people whom they can feel superior to. The untruth of these cultural stereotypes did not deter the big-city reporters, but a local journalist, Carl Jennings, fresh out of college and covering his first major story, reports what he sees: an ordinary town and a defendant who is probably guilty.

This journey to a distant time and place summons up ghosts from the reporters' pasts: Henry Jernigan's sojourn in Japan that ended in tragedy, Shade Baker's hardscrabble childhood on the Iowa prairie, and Rose Hanelon's brittle sophistication, a shield for her hopeless love affair. While they spin their manufactured tales of squalor, Carl tries to discover the truth in the Morton trial with the help of his young cousin Nora, who has the Sight. But who will believe a local cub reporter whose stories contradict the nation's star journalists? For the reader, the novel resonates with the present: an economic depression, a deadly flu epidemic, a world contending with the rise of political fanatics, and a media culture determined to turn news stories into soap operas for the diversion of the masses.

A stunning return to the lands, ballads, and characters upon which she made her name, The Devil Amongst the Lawyers is a testament to Sharyn McCrumb's lyrical and evocative writing.
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Kathryn R.

The critics were harsh in their review but I think they found the realistic depiction of “the press” too closely the bone. Truth often suffers in the goal to sell a story. Today McCrumbs so-call journalist would be posting their fiction disguised as news instead of phoning it in. But, as we’ve seen in the last 6 years, the spin they want trumps the truth.

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Sarah

This is a 5 star recording of the book. Her descriptions and the reader make the book standout. Can't shut it down at times. I love to listen to the readers and they make the stories so real. This better than TV and you can do minor chores and crafts while listening.

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