The Mountains Sing – Secrets Spill In Compelling “Kings of Coweetsee” by Dale Neal

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Read on for Allie Coker’s exciting review of Dale Neal’s compelling novel, Kings of Coweetsee.

Delve into the mesmerizing world Dale Neal has crafted, and join a literary journey like no other. Whether you’re a devoted bookworm or simply looking for your next engaging read, this LitStack review provides valuable insights into Kings of Coweetsee. Get ready to immerse yourself in a tale filled with intrigue, emotion, and unforgettable characters.

The Mountains Sing

They say you never get a second chance at a first impression. That the people from your past will never let you change. That’s certainly true in Coweetsee, where they say plenty, particularly about each other. They say the Harmon women have always been loose. That the Harmon boy was never any good. They say Roy Boy will never win this election, and that Birdie Barker Price should mind her own business. Whether born out of a stubborn resistance to change or a fear that what’s been so lovingly preserved will be lost, once you are branded by the townspeople of Coweetsee, they are loathe to alter their views even, sometimes, in light of new information.

Nothing Ever Changes in Coweetsee

Coweetsee is described as a county of country farms in the Blue Ridge with roughly 10,000 barns. Most of its inhabitants have known each other since birth. Rattled by the prospect of outsiders unsettling the balance of their “kingdom,” Coweetsee folk even had a sheriff with the same last name for a hundred years. Despite the constant refrain of their invariable hometown, one could argue that plenty changed not only in 1982 when Maurice Posey unseated the Smathers’ family as law of the land, but in the years leading up to that fateful election as well.

The Harmon family, troubled from the start, could be the key to much of the heartache experienced by the community. 16-year-old Charlie Clyde consciously decides one night to run over a drunk man in the road leading his whole family to suffer in an effort to keep him out of prison. But when the black church suddenly goes up in flames, Charlie Clyde is sentenced for a crime he adamantly states he didn’t commit. As the years pass, his sisters, Rhonda and Deana, grow a reputation that leaves people less than sympathetic to the family and their sorrows.

When Birdie Barker Price, a former schoolteacher who grew up learning morbid ballads from her Aunt Zip about love gone wrong, took up with the out-of-towner hippie who would become her second husband, things changed. When Old Nebuchadnezzar Church burned down, things changed. When Rhonda Harmon was found dead in the river, things changed. With each decision made by one person in the county, the ripple effects impacted all the rest. Narrated by an unnamed member of the community, the novel unveils so many dirty deeds done in such a small town.

Just Because People Stay Buried, Doesn’t Mean Secrets Do

Now it’s 2014 and a beacon from the past, a ballot box labeled “13” with muddy, charred sides appears on Birdie’s doorstep in the middle of another sheriff election. Her first husband, “Roy Boy”, a former high school wrestler who never quited lived up to “champion” asks her to leave the mystery alone while his campaign against Cancro, the current sheriff, is active, but Birdie isn’t afraid of (literally) displaying the truth. Birdie now runs Coweetsee’s historical society out of the old jail where she showcases artifacts pertinent to the area.

Armed with new evidence, Birdie and her best friend, Shawanda Tomes, whose uncle perished in the church fire, will try to uncover the truth about the county they call home after discovering Charlie Clyde has been released from prison. How did Rhonda Harmon die? Did Maurice Posey truly win the 1982 election? Who’s responsible for torching the church? And who is sneaking around now ransacking barns for their wood and copper piping?

Forward Motion: Denial and Progress in Coweetsee

The theme of denial runs strong as a river’s current in this narrative. Roy wrestles with the idea that Birdie may come back to him one day. Maurice Posey, witnessing the reliance of the community on the buyout payments, can’t fathom that after a 24 year run as sheriff he would ever lose the election, let alone land himself in hot water. The FBI planned to investigate the church fire since it yielded a casualty until, steeped in denial, they gave into their belief that black Appalachians simply didn’t exist. One thing everyone feels though, is the undeniable shift in Coweetsee from the small, but mighty, influx of outsiders.

Frank Cancro, current sheriff and retired NJ cop, has plenty of notions of how to whip the county into a more palletable place. Procedures and gladhanding dominate under his watch as he chooses to ignore the seemingly petty concerns of some citizens (Birdie reports the barn thefts) in favor of falling in with the elite crowd that have chosen the area for their second homes high up in the mountains, literally looking down on the townsfolk around them. Under Cancro’s disciplined eye, actions that were previously not considered crimes (reckless driving, vote-buying) are eradicated, but he turns no blind eye for any minor infraction either. But people aren’t governed by rules; they’re governed by fate.

Dale Neal’s gritty, unpretentious realism shines with characters that compel you to take a second look at them. It is a perfect read for fans of southern fiction or anyone who believes that while we can’t utimately halt progress, we can have a hand in guiding it.

~ Allie Coker

About Dale Neal, Author Of Kings of Coweetsee

Dale Neal is the author of Appalachian Book of the Dead, shortlisted for the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award; Cow Across America, winner of the Novello Literary Award; and The Half-Life of Home. His short stories and essays have appeared in Our State, Smoky Mountain Living, North Carolina Literary Review, Carolina Quarterly, and elsewhere. He earned an MFA in creative writing at Warren Wilson College. A former longtime journalist with the Asheville Citizen-Times, he lives in Asheville.

You can find and follow Dale Neal on his website, on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

Other LitStack Resources

Be sure and look at our other LitStack Reviews for our recommendations on books you should read, as well as these reviews by Allie Coker and these reviews by Lauren Alwan.

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