Gods of Howl Mountain

A Southern Independent Booksellers Assocation Bestseller!

“A fresh, authentic, and eloquent new voice in American fiction.” - Robert Morgan, New York Times bestselling author of Gap Creek

In Gods of Howl Mountain, award-winning author Taylor Brown explores a world of folk healers, whiskey-runners, and dark family secrets in the high country of 1950s North Carolina.

Bootlegger Rory Docherty has returned home to the fabled mountain of his childhood - a misty wilderness that holds its secrets close and keeps the outside world at gunpoint. Slowed by a wooden leg and haunted by memories of the Korean War, Rory runs bootleg whiskey for a powerful mountain clan in a retro-fitted '40 Ford coupe. Between deliveries to roadhouses, brothels, and private clients, he lives with his formidable grandmother, evades federal agents, and stokes the wrath of a rival runner.

In the mill town at the foot of the mountains - a hotbed of violence, moonshine, and the burgeoning sport of stock-car racing - Rory is bewitched by the mysterious daughter of a snake-handling preacher. His grandmother, Maybelline “Granny May” Docherty, opposes this match for her own reasons, believing that "some things are best left buried." A folk healer whose powers are rumored to rival those of a wood witch, she concocts potions and cures for the people of the mountains while harboring an explosive secret about Rory’s mother - the truth behind her long confinement in a mental hospital, during which time she has not spoken one word. When Rory's life is threatened, Granny must decide whether to reveal what she knows...or protect her only grandson from the past.

With gritty and atmospheric prose, Taylor Brown brings to life a perilous mountain and the family who rules it.

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Published Feb 19, 2019

304 pages

Average rating: 10

1 RATING

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Community Reviews

Book.Girl71
Aug 23, 2024
10/10 stars
When I first came across this book back in September I knew I had to read it. So, Thank You St. Martin’s Press, Netgalley, and Taylor Brown for an advanced ebook copy.

Historical fiction is my first love and this book reminded me of why that is. Gods of Howl Mountain takes you to 1952 in Appalachian North Carolina. Home to Rory who is just returning from the Korean War, with part of a leg missing. He lives in an old shack with his Granny May (can I just say she is the real star and a force to be reckoned with), who raised him after his momma Bonni was put into the asylum. Throughout the book you are given Bonni’s love story and why she is where she is, my heart just broke for her.

There is so much going on and I loved every minute, so if you love a wild ride with; souped up cars to outrun lawless sheriff's, mountain switchbacks, NASCAR, bootleggers, southern folklore, healers, hollers, bawdyhouses, revenuers, moonshiners, questionable preachers, preachers daughter, snake charmers (lots and lots of snakes (God help me!)), vengeance, family history and an ending you won’t see coming, then read this book!

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