To the Bones

by Valerie Nieman

To the Bones  began when I made the comment that, back when I lived in West Virginia, if I was going to kill someone, then I'd toss him down a mine crack. My friend challenged me to do just that —so Darrick MacBrehon, a government auditor, wakes up in a pit full of human bones after getting off the highway at Redbird, WV. He finds his way to a sweepstakes parlor operated by Lourana Taylor, a grieving mother who's been searching for her missing daughter. With a snowstorm bearing down on a Thanksgiving weekend, the pair find themselves making common cause against the local coal barons, the Kavanaghs, whom Lourana believes are behind pretty much everything that goes wrong there. Darrick has also developed a lethal defense mechanism, its source unknown. They gain and lose allies, make discoveries, and confront the Kavanaghs. There's a zombie panic, a New York psychic, and a terrible human tragedy before the final showdown.

Genres: Novels

204 pages, Paperback

Published April 25, 2019

About the author

Upon the Corner of the Moon: A Tale of the Macbeths, is the first of two novels about the rise of Scotland in the 11th century and the historical Macbeths who shaped it. Deeply researched, it has a speculative element in the creation of an ancient goddess religion. “Steeped in the myth, mystery, politics, and culture of Celtic Scotland, Upon the Corner of the Moon presents the world of the young Lady Macbeth and Macbeth with authenticity, a deft hand, and a poet’s voice,” says Susan Fraser King, author of Lady Macbeth: A Novel.

Dead Hand, the sequel to To the Bones, a genre-bending folk horror/mystery set in coal country that was shortlisted for both the Manly Wade Wellman Award and the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award. Available in print and e-book on Amazon.
"...a hard-fought battle, from West Virginia to Ireland, for a future free from legacies of pain and plunder. Nieman crafts a richly atmospheric folk horror tale with a thumping heart of environmental justice; like Manly Wade Wellman for a new generation.”—Meagan Lucas, author of Songbirds and Stray Dogs and Here in the Dark

In the Lonely Backwater received the 2022 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for the best book of fiction by a North Carolina writer. Past recipients include Jason Mott, Lee Smith, Allen Gurganus, Charles Frazier et al. The book also was named winner in the Mystery/Suspense category of the American Writing Awards and was a finalist at Foreword Reviews.
The novel is "a page-turning psychological thriller" and "an intricate and intriguing work of art." With a style both Southern Gothic and realist, and its deep immersion in nature, the novel appeals to lovers of suspense and YA reader alike. "Nieman achieves a suspenseful narrative full of compassion, haunting, and desire, and instruction about the power of storytelling" wrote another reviewer.

My most recent poetry book, "Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse," is set in a mid-century carnival sideshow and features poems that have appeared in The Missouri Review, Chautauqua, and other journals. More than 15 years of writing -- and a week of study at Coney Island Museum -- went into telling the story of Dinah and The Professor.

My first novel, Neena Gathering, a post-apocalyptic tale set in West Virginia, was reissued as a classic in the genre, and is also available on Audible.

I've been a doughnut-maker, farmer, reporter, sailor, professor, and always, a walker and observer. All my experiences find their way into my work, from memories of high school drama to a visit to the working face of a coal mine to the insights gleaned from working the police beat at a small-town newspaper.

I have held grants from the NEA, North Carolina and West Virginia arts councils. I earned degrees from West Virginia University and Queens University of Charlotte.

Follow me on Facebook @valerienieman1, and on Instagram and Twitter @valnieman. My Youtube channel has reading videos and more.

Reviews

[Kyra Leseberg (Roots & Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Government auditor Darrick MacBrehon stops for gas off an isolated West Virginia exit and ends up in a mine crack for his trouble.  He wakes up disoriented in the hole surrounded by skeletal remains and crawls out in search of answers.

Lourana Taylor is ready to close up the local Redbird, West Virginia sweepstakes for the Thanksgiving holiday when a man staggers in with a bloody head wound.  She doesn't want any part of his trouble until he explains that he woke up in a mine.
Lourana's daughter Dreama has been missing for 18 months and she knows that it has something to do with Dreama's employer, Kavanagh Coal.  Almost everyone in town is employed by the company and willing to turn a blind eye to the river running orange with acid.

"Outsiders say we're fatalistic, or backward. That we keep mining for the money, even when it's destroying our land. What they don't get is the pride part. For a man to go under the earth like his daddy and earn a good living for his family. So yeah, we know that the mines poison the rivers, tear up the roads, wreck our lungs. Nobody knows that better or feels the pain of it worse. We ain't stupid. You'd be surprised how many guys with college degrees are running the longwalls. It hurts to see the damage, but it's worse when the mines close and there's no place to work, and families slip away one at a time till there's not half a town left."

Lourana is certain her daughter didn't up and leave without telling her, which is the only reason why she's back in Redbird: to find Dreama.  What happened to Darrick is obviously the work of the Kavanaghs, which means it could be tied to Dreama's disappearance too.  

Lourana and Darrick search for answers with the help of deputy Marco DeLucca and journalist Zadie Person.  Marco is an old friend with a soft spot for Lourana and he knows he's close to finding answers when the sheriff pulls him off Dreama's case.  Zadie is investigating the acid mine spill and its connection to several disappearances, including Dreama's.

The powerful Kavanagh family founded Redbird and controls the land and effectively its people. They feed off the hard work and dependence of the miners and take advantage of their faith.

Lourana and Darrick think they've discovered what the Kavanaghs are hiding but the deeper they go, the more secrets (and bodies) are revealed.

To the Bones is a strong novel that manages to be an honest portrayal of a small town dependent on the coal industry while also including horror, mystery, and supernatural elements without sending the story over the top.  All of the elements work together to make a plausible and compelling story that is a metaphor for modern day Appalachia.

Thanks to West Virginia University Press for sending me a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.  To the Bones was released on April 25, 2019.

For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com

[Isaac Thorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get into this story. The first chapter doesn't immediately allow the reader any insight into where the protagonist (Darrick) is or how he got there. That's intentional. We're experiencing the scene through Darrick's own confusion. Starting a story with that type of confusion and without any fast-approaching light dawning tends to turn me away. It felt like an attempt to kickstart the mystery of the story, but with a bit too much tease.

That said, I pressed on to the second chapter and from there discovered a taut tale of power and intrigue. Darrick awoke in a mine crack full of bones and with a nasty head wound that seems to have given him new destructive psychic powers. He soon finds himself the hidden ward of a local diner owner, Loudron, whose daughter has gone missing and, she fears, met a horrible fate at the hands of the coal town's rich puppeteers the Kavanaughs. As their lives become entwined, our heroes decide to uncover the truth about what happened to Darrick and the daughter.

I enjoyed this story and getting to know the characters, especially after I got into chapter two and beyond. It's a fun ride through a small town in which the powerful puppet masters of a dying coal industry are still able to pull the strings on a working class populace.

[Jeanne Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes described as "a mash-up," this novel isn't the kind I'd choose from a library shelf if I weren't familiar with the author's poetry (which is terrific). It's a multi-crime mystery, a character study of people AND place, and a fantasy all at once. However, I enjoyed it, especially the two main characters, their differences and uneasy alliance. While it's in many ways a rollicking novel with touches of bitter humor, it sternly conveys how grotesque the real-life conditions are in towns that are dependent on and ruined by the coal-mining industry. The townspeople are stuck in a cycle of self-destruction and mob mentality that parallels our more global response to climate change. [I couldn't help associating the ruinous "orange river" with the sitting president of the United States, who's commonly described as orange....] The sense of place, the dialogue, the motivations, all ring true--so much so that, for me, the metaphorical/fantastical resolution of the plot was a let-down; I would've preferred a more realistic answer to the questions raised in the plot. But I recommend it as a page-turner with well-crafted prose, down-to-earth dilemmas, and otherworldly intrigue.

[Marjorie Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Valerian Nieman has made the perfect beach read...an evil coal baron, an intrepid reporter, a government man who wakes up with powers beyond his control, an ordinary woman shut down by grief, and a river so acid it strips the skin off Christians. Loved it! And the themes of souls at risk and environmental degradation caught me up in what becomes a great moral tale.

[Beth Castrodale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of my favorite novels are those in which the setting is integral to the story. In this thrilling, genre-bending novel, the richly rendered setting is inseparable from characters’ fears, strengths, and weaknesses and from nearly every tragedy and triumph in the story.

The coal-baron family at the center of the novel seems to draw dark, otherworldly powers from the coal, and from the land itself. And these powers appear unstoppable, until a few townspeople, and an outsider who discovers some otherworldly powers of his own, try to fight back–often, with deadly consequences.

In its exploration of the complications of possessing unexpected powers, To the Bones echoes Stephen King’s masterpiece The Dead Zone. For this reason and many others, it left a haunting impression.
For my review of the book, see https://smallpresspicks.com/to-the-bo....

[Jennifer Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a ride!

I will do my best to avoid spoilers. This is a tightly written wild ride through West Virginia coal country complete with terrifying folklore and acid mine drainage.
As a former journalist who worked for a daily newspaper in the northern coal counties of the state, this story provides the very essence of the mountain state and the bituminous coal patches contained there to the reader. The taste, scent, feel and sounds of the area are palpable throughout this book. Valerie Nieman gets it right from the Vienna sausage snacks and the snow-covered mountain tops to the pepperoni rolls and video poker spots.
To The Bones is a twisting, thrilling, roller coaster ride through just a few days in the lives of these characters but Nieman manages to reach back centuries to weave both Irish and Appalachian history and folklore into the her compelling tale.

[Steve Lindahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

To the Bones by Valerie Nieman combines the fun of a sci-fi/fantasy novel with a serious critique of greed in business, especially when that greed leads to environmental harm. It is set in a small, coal mining town in West Virginia. The coal industry is waning, but the business leaders in charge have found a way to keep exploiting the people and the land surrounding them.

Darrick, a mild-mannered government auditor, traveling alone, goes off the highway for gas and ends up in a pile of human bones in what appears to be a small cave but is actually a mine crack. He's been beaten, has a serious injury to his head and has been left for dead. He still manages to climb out of the hole. He can't remember what happened to him, so he limps off seeking help. Darrick is taken in by a strong willed woman named Lourana who has her own problems. Lourana's adult daughter, Dreama, is missing and Dreama is not the sort of woman to lose contact with her mother unless she's in serious trouble.

I loved the characters in this story, especially Louranna. She's a working class woman who manages a sweepstakes parlor. She knows taking in a stranger could be dangerous, but she helps Darrick because she feels it is the right thing to do. Darrick is also interesting as he learns he has a lot more going for him than he first realized. Their relationship is the core of the novel. The secondary characters are also well developed from the townspeople who think they've seen a Zombie to an ex detective who has been relegated to cleaning offices.

The sci-fi/fantasy aspect to the novel centers on abilities Darrick has and on abilities members of the wealthy Kavanagh family have. The progress Darrick makes to understand and use his skills for good is a major part of the plot, but the growth in his confidence is just as important.

To the Bones is excellently written by Valerie Nieman. I listened to the audio version read by Eric Fritzius. He also did a wonderful job. The story helped shorten a long trip I took.

[Miranda Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got excited to read “To the Bones” when I saw that it was set in my home state of West Virginia. This was my first experience reading Valerie Nieman, and I loved how she brought the characters to life. I can hear Lourana’s distinct Appalachian dialect flowing right off the pages.

It was wonderful to see some of the local West Virginia heritage and history being mentioned. It isn’t often I get to read about some of these things that are part of our culture such as: hunting ramps, pepperoni rolls, digging coal, Mothman, and Flatwoods Monster, which is actually folklore from my very own county. However, it’s also sad to see the mentioning of Upper Big Branch, which was a huge mining disaster that affected many families in several counties. Several men were lost. When Valerie talks about the orange water in the river, that’s also something we really do see here, and boy does it ever stink like rotten eggs!

You definitely don’t have to be local to enjoy the book, but I think those things heightened my reading experience.

From out of town, Government auditor Darrick MacBrehon may have picked the wrong exit to stop at for gas. Considering he hasn’t filled up for quite some time, he doesn’t have any other option.

“This is how it feels to be dead.”

“He shook with the cold and the dark.”

“Then I’m not dead.”

He wakes up in the dark, disoriented and with a severe head injury, bloodied and stinking of rot and decay.

“Maybe you’re buried.”

“No one’s coming back for you. Ever.”

Darrick gathers all the strength he has left and manages to crawl out of his would-be grave — the bone-filled mine crack in the coal town of Redbird, West Virginia. He knows if he doesn’t get out now, he will never see the light of day again.

But the Darrick who emerges from the mine crack is different. He’s not the same Darrick who was left for dead. He has a power he didn’t know he possessed, an extremely dangerous power.

Local sweepstakes worker, Lourana Taylor, happens to be on shift when Darrick walks into her store. He’s hurt, and he’s scary, but the last thing you do in a coal town run by powerful coal tycoons — The Kavanaghs — is call the authorities.

Lourana has spent the last several months searching for her daughter and researching for answers. She’s not one to let down her guard, but Darrick’s story seems to ring true. Lourana wonders if some of the information and clues Darrick has brought with him out of the mine crack could lead to finding her missing daughter. She is certain Dreama would never have run away and that the Kavanaghs —Dreama’s employer—have something to do with the disappearance, but they’re close-lipped and mysterious.

The seemingly untouchable Kavanagh family rules the town, but they keep themselves shut off in their mansion behind fences and gates.

There is something terribly wrong with the Broad River. The acid pouring into the river from the mine has turned the water orange and killed all the fish, but there is definitely more to the story behind this mysterious orange goo. The local journalist, Zadie Person, attempts to investigate the acid spill, but she soon learns not to cross the ever-powerful Kavanaghs.

Darrick, Lourana, Zadie, and former deputy Marco join together to learn the coal tycoon’s secrets, search for Dreama, and attempt to stand up to the Kavanagh family, which they know will not come easily. With Darrick’s new powers, they prepare to fight the Kavanaghs, but they aren’t prepared for what lies ahead.

Deep in the mountains of West Virginia, the coal feeds a hungry secret which is deeply protected. Anyone who gets in the way of the power, even slightly, will end up getting stripped “right to the bone.”

So, this likely wouldn’t have been a book I would have found and read on my own. That’s one of the best things about being a member of Team Kendall Reviews. It’s opened me up to a lot more authors and diverse stories. I’m glad I decided to read To the Bones. I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen next. Darrick had me on the edge of my seat pretty much throughout the entire book, and with those creepy Kavanaghs, it was hard to predict exactly what they were going to do — it certainly was never anything good! What an evil family!

There were just enough supernatural elements to keep things interesting without being overcooked. I had a lot of fun with this book. It even tickled my guts with panic a few times —like the tingles you feel when playing hide-and-go-seek!

[Beth Winegarner · Rating 5 out of 5]

TO THE BONES is an enjoyable page-turner that turns lots of genre tropes on their heads. The characters are likeable, rich and believable and the plot never lets up. A satisfyingly quirky read.

[D.A. Spruzen · Rating 5 out of 5]

“To The Bones” is set in Redbird, a small town in West Virginia coal country. The town is run by and for the mine owners, the Kavanaughs, who are rarely seen as they prefer to hide away in their gated mansion. Pollution eats away at the town, but that subject is off limits. Two seemingly mismatched characters find love in spite of suffering healthy doses of sorrow and loss. So far this may sound all too familiar, but keep reading, because the book offers a unique, sometimes satirical, take on the setting. It’s a page-turner.

Darrick MacBrehon, wakes up with a terrible head wound in the bottom of a stinking mine pit, surrounded by numerous cadavers in various stages of decomposition. “If this was the afterlife, it seriously sucked and wasn’t the one catechism classes and college philosophy had prepared him for.” But he is still alive, though badly injured.

This weedy city boy makes his way out of the pit by using a couple of femurs like pitons, sticking them into the dirt and climbing to the rim. After passing a river of orange glop, he stumbles upon an empty trailer and spends the night there, sustained by the treasure he finds – soda and a warm jacket. The next day he begins walking again, or rather lurching as he suffers from ataxia, not to mention an open gash on his head. When a local family spots him while driving by, a zombie legend is born. He finds his way to a sweepstakes parlor where the manager, Lourana Taylor, reluctantly lets him in.

Darrick, a meek government auditor who was brought up in an orphanage, remembers pulling off the highway to get gas and being attacked, probably by a deputy he remembers being there. He wants to call the police, but Lourana tells him, “You don’t call the police hereabouts.” Redbird is one of those places where things happen and people from out of town sometimes stumble on the realities of West Virginia.

Darrick ends up going home with Lourana, who does her best to patch him up, and learns that her daughter Dreama has been missing for some time. While she has built a thick shell around her emotions, she is terrified the girl might be in that mine crack Darrick told her about. Darrick, who has until now led an orderly, dull life, is determined to find out why he was attacked and to help Lourana discover what happened to Dreama. They also start looking into the fearsome pollution said to be caused by a mine blowout. The Kavanaughs and their henchmen soon find out that a stranger is causing problems and set out to put a stop to it.

Probably as a result of his traumatic experience, Darrick has developed dangerous mental powers and inadvertently kills a cop who has pulled them over. The terrified cop believes him to be the zombie everyone is talking about and his hostility and fear is turned back against him. This gets them out of sticky situations more than once as they search for answers. The bodies and rumors pile up. They are aided by a former deputy Marco DeLucca (demoted after being deemed disloyal to the Kavanaughs) and newspaper reporter Zadie Person (who has also been looking into the town’s pollution issues) — the only people who dare go against the Kavanaughs. As Darrick and Lourana keep on pushing against all odds, the love that begins to bind them is sorely tested; will courage and devotion win the day?

The answers they seek are found in an old mine underneath the Kavanaugh’s mansion where the truth is a terrifying horror. The ending is a humdinger.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was SUCH a pleasure for me to read for a couple of reasons:

1) I met the author and listened to her talk about writing "in the woods" before picking up a copy. She's wonderful and brilliant and lovely, and after hearing her describe the novel I couldn't wait to read it.

2) It's like ...a masterclass?... on pacing. It's a quick read, but not so quick that you don't appreciate the multitude of cool things that are also happening outside the (engaging) plot. Like...

3) Nieman's straddling of the fiction/sci-fi/horror borders. Ex--the first character you meet emerges from a pit of dead bodies underground, filthy, bloody, unseeing. Zombie? Victim? Lots of fun plays on magic and the unbelievable/unexplainable.

4) Takes place in WV coal country and is wildly educational to readers as the story develops about the political and otherwise history of coal in the region. She's included several pieces of writing about coal and the coal mountains throughout the novel that pay respect to its otherworldly nature.

I could go on--suffice to say I really loved this book. Thanks Valerie!

[R. Gene Turchin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Valerie Nieman knows her way around words. "To The Bones" showcases a talent for both story telling and the type of writing that you want to roll around in your mouth like a good chocolate. That said, the book is a gut punch from the first lines. It hit you hard and doesn't let up with the action and mystery. She captures the flavor, language and culture of small coal towns in West Virginia in such a way that you can feel the air, smell the acrid coal dust and dirt. Her descriptions overwhelm the senses and yet it is so real.
The story revolves around a federal auditor who is nearly killed by minions of a powerful coal company family. Darrick MacBrehon develops a terrible telekinetic power as a survival mechanism after he is nearly killed and struggles to survive with the help of a local woman (this character is so well drawn that I feel like I may have met her at some point).
Valerie Nieman can hang with the best of the southern writers.
This is one of those books that you can't walk away from. You will give up food and sleep to see how it turns out. A masterpiece of storytelling.

[Raymond Hutson · Rating 4 out of 5]

To the Bones, Nieman’s fourth novel, follows Derrick MacBrehon, an inconsequential government auditor who is inadvertently beaten and left for dead by a corrupt deputy in a small town, his body cast into a mass grave. All he did was stop to buy gas. On awakening, Derrick has acquired an unusual telekinetic power, and finds an ally in one of the marginalized citizens of Carbon County, a devastated coal town held under the mysterious tyranny of the Kavanaughs, a dynastic clan who have mined the town bare and polluted the river. Previously timid, Derrick must, using his wit as well as his new-found powers, rise to the challenge of facing the demonic men who ordered his execution, and bring justice for the many lost souls of Carbon County.
A pall hangs over much of the story and many pages unfold under darkness, the townspeople at times taken with hysteria and a perpetual terror that shadows their everyday life; the tension is visceral. Nieman’s understanding of coal country (and its devastation) brings an organic authenticity to the book, and her prose is delightful.

[Stephanie Burton Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a quick read and moves along at a great pace . It has a couple of good plot twists and you can tell the author knows about West Virginia coal mining. I liked the environmental angle of the story also and the humor of a “ zombie” and the Christian evangelicals thinking it was the rapture happening . Corporate greed is always a believable story line too. I got to hear Valerie Nieman give a talk at the Carolina Mountain Literary Festival in 2019 and thought an interesting person like that would write an interesting book. I was right!

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In To the Bones, Val Nieman manages to use the common tropes of West Virginia storytelling--mining, desolation, devotion to family and tradition--and turn them on their heads. Yes, this is a horror story, a mystery story, even a love story, but is also a commentary on the more serious topics of environmental destruction and blindly following power and tradition. The reader can tell how much fun Val had writing this; you'll have the same fun reading.

[Rhonda Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read novel that's part ghost-story, part murder mystery, part love story, part environmental notice, and 100% enthralling!

[Rebecca Hodge · Rating 5 out of 5]

A multi-genre story that mixes horror, mystery, and magical realism against a background of environmental disaster, TO THE BONES is an impeccably written page-turner. I cheered for Derrick, an unassuming civil servant, who finds himself unexpectedly gifted with mental powers to fight the coal barons who are destroying a small town in West Virginia. The townspeople who ally themselves with him are dealing with past crises of their own, but together, they manage to identify the true source of the town’s ills and fight against it. This was one of those books that kept me reading long past bedtime.

[Shane Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nieman tells a riveting story of greed and destruction in a small West Virginia community by showing the ugliness of mining on the environment and people. She makes the reader cheer for the crusaders who are fighting a ‘David and Goliath’ battle from the very beginning of the book. Add some horrifying details and supernatural elements and you won’t be able to stop reading.

[Mike Mallow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sort of Appalachian Stranger Things with a more poetic edge. The book remains tense and twisty throughout. I wasn't expecting it to lean as much into science-fiction trappings as it did, but if you're prepared for that it's a fantastic ride.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad book, just not my kind of novel. The "literary", poetic prose doesn't really do it for me, and it bogged down the action scenes so that I had a hard time following those scenes.

[Natalie]

no ❤️

[Elizabeth Solazzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book surprised me. I didn't realize it had zombies until well into the book. By then I was hooked on the writing and the story.