Annie Gore is a fascinating character. A former special investigator in the Air Force, she now works as a P.I. The novel opens on a holiday weekend. Annie is reluctantly going through her bills when a young woman walks into the office. The woman wants to hire Annie to investigate the death of her estranged father, Ezra King, who was an itinerant preacher in the Appalachian town of Mount Zion. But Ezra’s church isn’t any ordinary church. No, his church is a snake-handling church and the cause of his death was notably a snake bite. Curious, however, is the fact that there was no autopsy performed and the burial took place within 24 hours of the discovery of his body. His daughter, Katie, thinks something is fishy and Annie agrees to take the case.

I really enjoyed the Annie Gore book that came before this one (The Witch’s Orchard). Brimstone Hollow, however, didn’t quite do it for me. I found myself uninvolved with the characters, the only exception being Annie herself. In addition, I found the dialogue and townspeople a little too “folksy” for me. Brimstone Hollow has all the elements of a good mystery, especially the snake handling, etc. Perhaps if the focus had been more sharply turned to Ezra, his background and motivations, instead of all the peripheral characters, I might have been sucked into it.

In any case, I found myself skimming, wanting to get to the end. The novel is well-written and, as mentioned above, has an intriguing protagonist. I hope to read more of Annie Gore in the future.