Book Review: The Hollows | Jess Montgomery

I remember when Jess Montgomery’s first book in this series The Widows came out and the book world was abuzz with praise for it. I missed out when it was first published, but that led me to the amazing opportunity to read not only The Widows, but the sequel which was just published this month, The Hollows, back-to-back. All of the pain of waiting for more from the series was washed away, and I pretty much dropped everything to read them.

I have to say—the praise was well-earned! Jess Montgomery writes a mystery that had my mind so engaged, trying to work through the pieces. With a slight edge of myth and lore, The Hollows is already primed to be a favorite book of mine in 2020, and it’s only January!

About the Book

Ohio, 1926: For many years, the underground railroad track in Moonvale Tunnel has been used as a short cut through the Appalachian hills. When an elderly woman is killed walking along the tracks, the brakeman tells tales of seeing a ghostly female figure dressed all in white.

Newly elected Sheriff Lily Ross is called on to the case to dispel the myths, but Lily does not believe that an old woman would wander out of the hills onto the tracks. In a county where everyone knows everyone, how can someone have disappeared, when nobody knew they were missing? As ghost stories and rumors settle into the consciousness of Moonvale Hollow, Lily tries to search for any real clues to the woman’s identity.

With the help of her friend Marvena Whitcomb, Lily follows the woman’s trail to The Hollows—an asylum is northern Antioch County—and they begin to expose secrets long-hidden by time and the mountains.

Reflection

The appeal of The Hollows (and it’s predecessor The Widows) is the complexity of the story and the characters. In every way that thrillers can feel larger than life, this book shines in how subtle and authentic the mystery felt. In fact, I could have imagined this to be based on a true story (and in part, it is, I learned after reading it!). The books in the Kinship, Ohio series are based on the real first female sheriff from the 1920s in Appalachia, Ohio.

Lily Ross is a widow and mother to two young children when she was appointed to fill the role of sheriff after her husband (the current sheriff) died. When Lily later goes on to be officially elected as sheriff based on her own merit, history was made. But Lily is a character who shows all of the authenticity, vulnerability, and even strength that a woman (or even a person) in her position would face. She’s doing her best to hold her life together for her town and for her two small children.

When an elderly woman dies in a fall near the railroad tracks, Lily quickly finds that they town wants her to declare the death accidental. Lily isn’t so sure though. It doesn’t quite add up, the notion that a woman could vanish and no one would know they were missing. But as she looks into the death, she discovers a troubling link to the Ku Klux Klan in a house the woman had been in the night that she died.

When Lily discovers the identity of the woman and that she had escaped from the Hollows Asylum for the Insane, as well as discovering her past ties to the murder of her own father and her testimony that helped convict an escaped slave for committing the crime, she realizes this case is much more complicated than it seems.

The historical setting of small town Ohio combined with the town’s roots in racial tension and conflict was such a rich context for this mystery. I loved the town lore, and the talk of ghost stories. The way the town searched for mystical explanations to explain away the troubling truth of the rotten core that threatened their community. These all led to an atmospheric quality to the story that I couldn’t quite dismiss. Do I believe in ghosts? Let’s just say I don’t NOT believe in them!

There’s almost a delicateness to this series that is hard to explain. The themes of racism and a community threatening to boil over if disrupted are powerful, but the writing itself and the story is so carefully woven, it felt like an entirely different reading experience than the typical mystery. The women were powerful in this town, as evidenced by the incredible things Lily has done and has yet to accomplish. But there is an evil to some of the town and some of the history of the community that even the strongest among them feel diminished by.

I lost myself in these books. I can’t recommend them enough! I also think you could easily jump in straight at The Hollows, though I’d be doing a disservice as a reviewer if I didn’t encourage you to read both! They are that good!

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and Minotaur Books for my copy. Opinions are my own.

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About the Author

JESS MONTGOMERY is the author of the Kinship Historical Mystery series, focusing on a 1920s female sheriff in Appalachia. You can find out more about her books at her website, www.jessmontgomeryauthor.com, or reach her on Facebook @JessMontgomeryAuthor, Twitter @JessM_Author and Instagram @JessMontgomeryAuthor.

Under Jess’s given name, she is a newspaper columnist, focusing on the literary life, authors and events of her native Dayton, Ohio for the Dayton Daily News. Her first novel in the Kinship Historical Mystery series, THE WIDOWS, garnered awards even before publication: Montgomery County (Ohio) Arts & Cultural District (MCAD) Artist Opportunity Grant (2018); Individual Excellence Award (2016) in Literary Arts from Ohio Arts Council; John E. Nance Writer in Residence at Thurber House (Columbus, Ohio) in 2014.