Rating: 
Summary: Another McCrumb success!
Review: With each book in the Appalachian folk series, McCrumb has moved closer and closer to history and has integrated more and more characters with the Sight, as well as the object of their Sightings. In my opinion, Rosewood Casket was a flawless balance, with each character rendered three-dimensionally and the supernatural touches deft and light. Frankie Silver and Songcatcher were close. I wouldn't miss anything by McCrumb, but here I get the feeling she was pushing herself to a new level and at the same time covering some of the same ground. Because she sets the scene in the same place as earlier novels, we meet the old familiar characters, such as Nora Bonesteel and Spencer Arrowood. In Ghost Riders they make cameo appearances, almost dropping in to say hello to their old friends, the readers. And the Ghost Riders are not at all subtle. They're seen by those who have the Sight and by those who are close to dying. I didn't get a sense that they were dangerous or even particularly scary. Nora Bonesteel's visions were tame compared to what went before. And, for the first time in McCrumb's books, the historical scenes become more vivid than the present. We get a sense of the complexity of the Civil War and the ironies of who fought where. McCrumb delivers another success -- well worth picking up and reading, though not quite as deep, and definitely not as lyrical as some of its predecessors. And I am already awaiting the author's next book...will she continue with the ballads or give us another chapter of the McPhersons?
Either way, I'm ready!
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