The Devil Walks in Mattingly: A Novel
For the three people tortured by their secret complicity in a young man's untimely death, redemption is what they most long for . . . and the last thing they expect to receive.
It has been twenty years since Philip McBride's body was found along the riverbank in the dark woods known as Happy Hollow. His death was ruled a suicide. But three people have carried the truth ever since—Philip didn't kill himself that day. He was murdered.
Each of the three have wilted in the shadow of their sins. Jake Barnett is Mattingly's sheriff, where he spends his days polishing the fragile shell of the man he pretends to be. His wife, Kate, has convinced herself the good she does for the poor will someday wash the blood from her hands. And high in the mountains, Taylor Hathcock lives in seclusion and fear, fueled by madness and hatred.
Yet what cannot be laid to rest is bound to rise again. Philip McBride has haunted Jake's dreams for weeks, warning that he is coming back for them all. When Taylor finds mysterious footprints leading from the Hollow, he believes his redemption has come. His actions will plunge the quiet town of Mattingly into darkness. These three will be drawn together for a final confrontation between life and death . . . between truth and lies.
"Coffey has a profound sense of Southern spirituality. His narrative moves the reader from . . . [a] false heaven to a terrible hell, then back again to a glorious grace." —Publishers Weekly
"The Devil Walks in Mattingly . . . recalls Flannery O'Conner with its glimpses of the grotesque and supernatural." —BookPage
'Coffey has a profound sense of Southern spirituality.'
“[The Devil Walks in Mattingly is] a story that will hold your attention until the last page.”
“Hailing from a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, author Billy Coffey has become quite the captivating storyteller, penning three books filled with rich prose and relatable characters. His fourth novel, The Devil Walks in Mattingly, tackles the themes of redemption, guilt, and sin as three people live with the knowledge of what really happen to a young man two decades earlier. The truth threatens to come out as the characters are confronted with consequences and haunted by their memories in a story that will hold your attention until the last page.”
“In Billy Coffey’s The Devil Walks in Mattingly, past misdeeds haunt a husband and wife in a way that blurs the line between the real world and something beyond. The sleepy town of Mattingly, Virginia, recalls Flannery O’Connor with its glimpses of the grotesque and supernatural. In this small town---prone to gossip and an inability to let bygones be bygones---the past and the present collide when heinous crimes are committed and an evil is let loose.”
Product Details
- Title : The Devil Walks in Mattingly
- Author: Coffey, Billy
- Publisher: Thomas Nelson
- Publication Date: 2014
- ISBN: 9781401688240