Dr. Gail Palmer

Smoky Mountain Tales, Volume 1: Feuds, Murder & Mayhem Dr. Gail Palmer

A creative non-fiction work built on stories about actual feuds, murder of individuals and disasters that occurred throughout Great Smoky Mountains prior to the area becoming a national park. The stories read like excerpts from a novel, but are based on true stories, some information taken from court documents and interviews. Reading these stories helps give the reader an image and a voice to those who used to live in the mountain areas of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. As usual, Dr. Palmer spins a good yarn in the style, and often in the vernacular, of her beloved Appalachian kin folks. Some of the accounts were familiar but others were new to me. All were captivating and entertaining. As the old adage goes, history is a compilation of rumor. However, via scholarly interpretations of the clues she had to go on, she skillfully breathed life into these tales. Allen R. Coggins, author and Smoky Mountain tour guide