Synopses & Reviews
Part ghost story, part powerful sweeping epic, Ghost on Black Mountain is a powerful debut which launches a bright new voice in Southern fiction.
Meet the women of Black Mountain and the one man that ties them all together… Nellie Pritchard:
I married Hobbs Pritchard without noticing he was a spell conjured into a man—a walking, talking, ghost story. He took me up Black Mountain and it was there I learned sometimes good and bad get mixed together so well a person can’t tell the difference until it’s too late. Rose Gardner:
I fell deeply in love with Hobbs as if some hoodoo was put on me. Then Miss Nellie came into our lives and changed everything. Josie Clay:
Hobbs Pritchard was like a spoiled potato at the bottom of the barrel. But my daughter Nellie didn’t believe me. Something stunk to high heavens, something rotten. Eventually I’d find out what it was… Shelly Parker
: I got me this gift—restless souls line up to get my notice no matter what I’m doing. Daddy warned me not to have nothing to do with the Pritchards. Some things in life just can’t be avoided and getting mixed up with Nellie was one of them.
Mama told me the same bedtime story each night. She told it with such detail I was sure Hobbs and Nellie were real. But they were just characters in a tale spun to keep me in line. They were my moral compass. Or so I believed…
Haunted and healed by ghosts of the past in surprising and unexpected ways, the women of Black Mountain experience their amazing journeys at the hands of talented story weaver Ann Hite.
Review
"Pull up a rocker and gaze into the hills at sundown. Old-time front porch storytelling unfolds in this dark, twisted tale where hardscrabble lives, murderous secrets, and ghosts intersect on a mysterious mountain." —Beth Hoffman, New York Times bestselling author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
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"An eerie page-turner told in authentic mountain voices that stick with the reader long after the story ends." –Amy Greene, author of Bloodroot
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"Haunting, dark and unnerving, Hite's brilliant modern gothic casts an unbreakable spell."—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You
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"The authentic voice of Nellie Pritchard, who comes to Black Mountain as a new bride, wraps around you and pulls you deep into this haunted story. Ann Hite delivers an eerie page-turner that I couldn’t put down." -- Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Gods in Alabama and Backseat Saints
Review
"The inhabitants of Black Mountain live side-by-side with the spirits of the dead, throw spells and dig for treasure, solve their problems with careful alliances and the occasional murder. This is a story where the spookiness of a mountain village comes to life through gritty characters whose feelings and motivations seem all too similar to our own. Ann Hite captures their voices so well, you'd swear they're whispering into your ear. Ghost on Black Mountain is captivating."—Rebecca Coleman, author of The Kingdom of Childhood
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"Will intrigue readers eager for a Southern Gothic tale, and suggests a promising future for the Black Mountain novels to come."—Publisher's Weekly
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"Multiple female narrators add dimension and perspective to Hite's first novel, and the sightings and visits from the spirits are often appropriately eerie . . . [An] artfully woven tale." --Library Journal
Review
"[Ann Hite]
Review
“Hite paints a loving portrait of rural mountain life in the early twentieth century, and characters are nuanced and true”--Atlanta Magazine
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"A haunting Southern gothic tale . . . wonderfully crafted"—San Francisco Book Review
Review
"[Ann Hite] twists folklore with the genres of Southern Gothic, paranormal and literary fiction like a fine, fat pretzel, a guilty pleasure after midnight . . . A richly layered tale of haints, hoodoo and heebie-jeebies, mayhem and murder, love and betrayal."—Alabama Mobile Register
Synopsis
ONCE A PERSON LEAVES THE MOUNTAIN, THEY NEVER COME BACK, NOT REALLY. THEY’RE LOST FOREVER. Nellie Clay married Hobbs Pritchard without even noticing he was a spell conjured into a man, a walking, talking ghost story. But her mama knew. She saw it in her tea leaves: death. Folks told Nellie to get off the mountain while she could, to go back home before it was too late. Hobbs wasn’t nothing but trouble. He’d even killed a man. No telling what else. That mountain was haunted, and soon enough, Nellie would feel it too. One way or another, Hobbs would get what was coming to him. The ghosts would see to that. . . .
Told in the stunning voices of five women whose lives are inextricably bound when a murder takes place in rural Depression-era North Carolina, Ann Hite’s unforgettable debut spans generations and conjures the best of Southern folk-lore—mystery, spirits, hoodoo, and the incomparable beauty of the Appalachian landscape.
About the Author
Ann Hite lives with her family in Atlanta.