The Devil's Hearth — Phillip Depoy

WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD...

Fever Devlin leaves his university job to return to his home in the Georgia Appalachians, prepared to confront the ghosts of his past. But his arrival is greeted with the discovery of a body on the porch of the family cabin--a corpse that turns out to be a half brother Fever never knew existed.

The truth about the murder and the secrets surrounding Fever's life remain hidden in the determined silence of the locals. He must sort through his quirky family history--where an adulterous mother, an unnamed father, a secret diary and a priceless church relic become the pieces in a puzzle of grim awakening and dark suspicion.

It takes the brutal murder of an old wood-carver to expose the festering secrets of this mountain community where the dead tell no tales--and a killer plots to ensure Fever joins their eternal silence.