Appalachian Whispers: Darker Hollows: More Folklore, Legends, and Ghost Stories from the Mountains

Some roads don't appear on maps.

The first book took you to the hollows. This one goes further in - past where the road ends, past the polite stories, into the territory the mountains kept to themselves.

Raven Mockers stealing the remaining years from the dying. Melungeon families whose origins are still disputed and whose folk magic runs deeper than any single tradition can account for. Snake handling churches where faith and death share the same pew every Sunday. Cursed hollows that four families tried to settle across a hundred and thirty years and four families abandoned. Murder ballads preserving real crimes that no court would hear. Healing springs where two traditions found the same sacred water from different directions. The powwow hex book that traveled from Pennsylvania into the southern mountains and never left. Granny women who are still practicing - and the younger women learning at their knees right now. Haunted courthouses and jails where the weight of imperfect justice never fully cleared. Mountain creatures that the collecting literature underattended. Music that opens doors. Dreams the mountains send at night to those who have learned to listen.

Ida Mae Calloway spent another decade going further - more porches, more remote hollows, elders with stories they weren't ready to tell until now.

Fourteen chapters. Seven parts. The deepest the mountains have let her go.

For readers of Ghostland, Salvation on Sand Mountain, and the first Appalachian Whispers.