THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME

It isn’t just the poverty in rural Ohio and West Virginia that brings out the violent undertones in this book’s protagonists—it’s the history, the sadness, and the sense of duty and right. Whatever the cause, it falls to Arvin Russell, orphaned yet moral son of Appalachia, to at least try to set things right. Mark Bramhall captures every bit of the story’s pervasive sorrow and hopelessness in his slow pacing and understated tone. While he takes the dialect a bit far at times, he also conveys the inner desperation of a female serial killer, her corrupt lawman brother, and some of their victims. As the final killing ends, we are left with a sense of justice, and despair. R.L.L. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2011]