Set in West Virginia, 1897, this somewhat spooky tale is apparently based on a genuine historical trial. Zona Heaster marries in THE RED BIRD SINGS but only a few months later, her best friend Lucy Frye visits the house to find a crowd mourning the fact that Zona has been found dead in the kitchen. Lucy suspects this was no heart attack, but the grieving husband won’t let anyone near the body except the doctor.
Lucy is our guide. She represents the new class of women who want to be professionals and keep getting sidelined by men. Lucy hopes to be a real journalist, but her bicycling and typing only get her admonitions to stick to items suitable for the women’s page. An interesting touch is that new inventions are being built in Greenbrier County – steam-powered cars – but of course, they need patents and investments if they are to be put on the presumably scarce market. With all this happening, a new blacksmith in town became popular, and Edward "Trout" Shue was the blacksmith who asked to marry Zona. Her mother, Mary Jane Heaster, is a traditionally minded lady who kept her daughter’s secrets and wanted her respectably wed, but also doesn’t necessarily trust a handsome face. While Lucy never much liked Trout anyway.
The background information is layered into place – not everyone is literate, for example. So by the time of the trial, which occupies the last portion, we really feel part of the time period. Additional fabric is provided by mentions of ghosts and earlier trial records.
THE RED BIRD SINGS was written by Irish writer Aoife Fitzpatrick as her debut for a creative writing degree, so she adds touches like use of older typefaces, to mimic an old manual typewriter for letters and trial notes. I found the print almost tactile. This adds a layer of authenticity to immerse the reader in the situation but can slow down the account. I did find the beginning took time to get into, but THE RED BIRD SINGS kept my interest. As we have seen in a book about more recent times, Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, women often had few good options for marriage, and men sometimes expressed their inadequacy or arrogance by becoming controlling or violent. Sad to say, domestic abuse is still part of modern society, so by telling a fiction story the author is helping to further the discussion about what kind of society we want or should provide. Fans of historical crime fiction may be pleased with the read.
West Virginia, 1897. When young Zona Heaster Shue dies only a few months after her wedding, her mother Mary Jane becomes convinced that Zona was murdered - and by none other than her husband, Trout, the handsome blacksmith beloved in their small Southern town.
But when Trout is put on trial, no one believes he could have done it, apart from Mary Jane and Zona's best friend Lucy, who was always suspicious of Trout. As the trial raises to fever pitch and the men of Greenbrier County stand aligned against them, Mary Jane and Lucy must decide whether to reveal Zona's greatest secret in the service of justice. But it's Zona herself, from beyond the grave, who still has one last revelation to make.
The Red Bird Sings is to be read with your heart in your mouth and chills down your spine to the final, haunting page. It also explores important questions which we are still asking to this day. Who is listened to and who is ignored? Why are women so often not believed? And what does justice truly mean?
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