That Bright Land, by Terry Roberts

In 1866 in western North Carolina, the Civil War still rages on, at least for some.  In Terry Roberts's brooding novel That Bright Land, Jacob Ballard returns to the land of his birth to investigate the murders of Union war veterans.  Ballard was born in these rural mountains, but moved away to the north as a boy.  Now the War Department has sent him back.

Using the cover that he is there to interview Union army disability pensioners, Ballard meets many of the men in area who fought for the Union.  The area was split; this is one region in which brother really did fight against brother and neighbor against neighbor.  The longer Ballard hangs around, the more his life is in danger.

Roberts's murder mystery is interesting, although the suspense builds quietly enough that it doesn't seem very suspenseful.  Roberts's prose is what makes That Bright Land enjoyable.  As he creates the physical setting, with the steep hills and dark woods of Appalachia, and the time, when the wounds of the Civil War are still fresh, the reader can be forgiven for losing track of the story line.

Ballard finds his man, finds love, and finds himself.  I found myself much more enthralled with this western North Carolina community than with Ballard's mission and the resolution of the mystery.