The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharon McCrumb.

The sheriff of a fictional rural county in East Tennessee is invited to witness the execution of a local man he arrested 20 years ago for a double murder on the Appalachian Trail. He remembers what the then sheriff told him at the trial:

There’s only two murder cases in these mountains I’m not happy with. One is the fellow you’re about to put on death row, and the other is Frankie Silver.

So he ruminates over both of these cases, wondering if justice was served, or if something was missed. The Frankie Silver case is told through Burgess Gaither, clerk of the court that tried and executed her.

I think I’ll count this for folklore (3A) bingo square. The author did significant historical research into Frankie’s case which after 200 years is probably more legend than fact. Other of McCrumb’s novels might also be good recommendations for this category, or just in general.

Stephen Hunter is on my list of authors where I expect an unfamiliar book to be worth reading. I’ve read about 6 of his, and will continue until one of them disappoints me.

Just finished 47th Samauri by Stephen Hunter. Atypically for an author who usually writes about firearms, this is about swords. The protagonist’s father fought on Iwo Jima and took a sword from a Japanese officer who committed seppuku with it. Now 60? years later, his kid asks for it back. He doesn’t have it, but finds out who does, agrees that returning it is the right thing to do, and brings it back to Japan and the guy’s family. Then things get very violent because some bad guys discover the sword’s very famous past. So naturally, Bob Lee Swagger has to quickly learn swordfighting and basically re-enact the 47 Ronin event to avenge his new friend’s honor.

It’s not the author’s best work (for that I still recommend Black Light), but is interesting enough. The books in this series are self-contained, but do have an order. I had already read the book that immediately follows this one and knew how Bob Lee won the climactic swordfight, and what he brings home from Japan.

According to their online catalog, there in fact is a copy in my local public library. According to the statewide database, there’s another library copy next county over (in the author’s hometown).

It does appear to be self-published, by a local author. He should have known of and approved what boilerplate he was attaching to his text.