Bill Wallace’s Reviews > Murder Ballads: Illustrated Lyrics & Lore > Status Update

A pretty book about awful things. Many of these familiar songs (“Delia,” “Frankie and Johnny”) drip with gore and the author does a good job of discussing the true crimes behind many of them. She also provides very distinctive, expressionistic illustrations for most of the ballads, some of them wonderfully grim. The swamp monster baby killer of “Long Lankin” is especially well portrayed. Highly recommended.