Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 31, 1993 TAG: 9310310226
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by LANA WHITED
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Prominent among the lore of coastal North Carolina is the story of Nell Cropsey's 1901 disappearance from the front porch of her home in Elizabeth City. Chapel Hill professor Bland Simpson, himself a "down East" native, embellishes a story already recorded by John Harden in his well-known "The Devil's Tramping Ground and Other North Carolina Mystery Stories."
Drawing on national newspaper accounts, court records, and numerous interviews with descendants of the principles, Simpson weaves together the voices of Ollie Cropsey, sister of the missing woman; W.O. Saunders, a newspaper editor who, years earlier, had covered the disappearance as a novice reporter; and Jim Wilcox, Nell's suitor and the prime suspect.
Simpson's decision to use the first-person narratives of those close to the case elevates this book from the realm of the localized true mystery story. His "nonfiction novel" has the texture of a tapestry and the tone of a ballad, as the author captures the moral and social atmosphere of a community threatened by instability from within. There is something distinctly Faulknerian about Simpson's orchestration of these voices and his presentation of a colorful little postage stamp of a world.
Lana Whited teaches English and journalism at Ferrum College and recently completed a dissertation about fact-based homicide novels.
by CNB