Good at Dying (Revised)

In the deep woods around Blue Ruby, Virginia, John L struggles to save his sixteen-year-old niece from two sexual predators: one is the wily charismatic preacher, the Reverend Oriel Sanborne Wells; the other, less cunning but even more dangerous is… John L himself. John L is a descendant of a clan of Melungeons, a mysterious group of mountain people whose origins have long been the subject of suspicion and speculation. Bound to the insular traditions and fundamentalist doctrines of this isolated and inbred band, John L, at 28, finds himself irresistibly and helplessly drawn to his young niece, Cleo, abandoned to his care by his sister. To save Cleo from himself, provide money for her escape from Blue Ruby, and deliver her from the lecherous Reverend Wells, John L has conceived a desperate plan. He has plotted his own murder at the hands of the hot-headed Reverend. And he will reach out from beyond the grave to point an accusing finger at the Reverend. After he succeeds at getting himself killed by the Reverend, the good people of Blue Ruby go about living their lives believing John L’s death was the result of a hunting accident until John L’s brother returns to town some eight months later to settle his grandmother’s estate. A Pulitzer Prize winning newspaperman battles the bottle and his own guilt; a former Miss Virginia watches her beauty and her fortunes fade; the politically powerful families, the poor coal miners, and assorted denizens of Blue Ruby play their appointed roles, as old as the Virginia hills. Some of these people will be caught in the vortex of mystery, murder, crime and punishment. And some of them will become good at dying.