3.5⭐️Set in the depression-era South, The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart gives us a look into the turpentine industry and the people employed in the work camps around the pine forests. The story revolves around Rae Lynn Cobb and Delwood ‘Del’ Reese both of whom find themselves under the employ of the Swallow Hill work camp in Georgia. Del has a working knowledge of the trade, his parents having once worked in a similar camp when he was a child. However, before Swallow Hill, he was empl...

A gritty southern noir one. 1932.North Carolina. The depression has hit. Jobs are hard to come by.Turpentining is the one industry that seems to stay afloat. Barely. Rae Cobb has just lost her husband and looks to Swallow Hill Camp to do some turpentining. The only thing she knows how to do. But she has to become a he to be hired. What a harsh life. Laborious work. The abuse that happened in this camp. The discrimination. But there were still a few good men who recognized humanity in these human...

In a Nutshell: A well-written historical fiction focussing on life in a turpentine camp in the years after the Great Depression. I would have enjoyed more layered characters but the historical elements are good enough to make this an interesting experience.Story:Delwood Reese (Del) is a cocky womaniser who gets caught by his own bad deeds and needs to escape from his current employer before it’s too late. He finds a job as a tree worker in a turpentine camp in Swallow Hill, Georgia, hoping to fi...

Donna Everhart is one of my favorite authors, especially North Carolina authors. She took a slightly different direction with this story, and I loved it.In case you were wondering why on earth my name is “Tar Heel” reader, this book has the earliest explanation for why the term “Tar Heel” is tied to North Carolina and my beloved undergrad alma mater.Deep in the pine forests of North Carolina, turpentiners are working hard to retrieve the sap. Rae Lynn and her husband, Warren, own a turpentine fa...

Yowzers!Children used to sing and chant to a jump rope chorus during the Depression: "I shine my shoes with turpentine. Turpentine makes them shine. One, two, three......" Never knew what it took to harvest the makings of turpentine way back then and the toll it took on humanity.Donna Everhart presents a jaw-dropping novel surrounding the best and the worst in individuals during the Great Depression. If you could plow a field for a dime, you did it. No matter what it took to feed yourself and yo...

The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart is the kind of historical fiction I love. Set during the Great Depression in the South, this tale has rich characterization, a vivid setting, and research that blends seamlessly with the story. Delwood Reese has a bad habit of going after married women. On one occasion, when his boss catches him with his wife, and after receiving a near-death punishment, Del decides it’s time to move on. He slowly makes his way south to a turpentine camp called Swallo...

This is my first book by Donna Everhart, but it won’t be my last. The Saints of Swallow Hill was an atmospheric, enlightening historical fiction about The southeast during the Depression. Silly me, I never knew the reason NC was called the Tarheel State. This is a dark story and a reminder about how evil some men can be. It tackles the easy racism and misogyny of the day. The camps were just one step up from slavery. Corporal punishment was allowed. Because of the script program, most workers ow...

Swallow Hill turpentine camp in North Carolina during the Great Depression wan't an easy place to work. The men harvesting the turpentine from pine trees were all dirt poor and forced to rent dirty, run down shacks for they and their families to live in. Instead of a real wage they were paid by a token or 'scrip' system and the high prices at the commissary meant they were constantly hungry as well as in debt and never able to leave. However, there were few other jobs available at the time and t...

4.5 stars.If there was nothing else, I could say I learned something - why North Carolina is called the Tar Heel State and a good bit about the history of turpentining in the South around the depression. But I certainly got more than learning some facts. I found the same sense of place and time, characters that you can easily feel for, as I found in the three other novels that I’ve read by Donna Everhart. The deeds of some vile characters bring Rae Lynn Cobb and Del Reese to the Swallow Hill wor...

I read another author's review of their book in which they gave themselves a five star rating, and they said something to the effect of, "of course I give my own work five stars because if I didn't believe in it, who else would?" Amen to that.I hope you will allow me this tiny bit of self-indulgence because what I really want to do is "talk" to all of you, the readers/reviewers who have been so kind thus far in taking time to leave your thoughts on this story. I also wanted to take up some space...