The Ginhouse Hollow

By: Koren Freel

Narrated by: Mary Ellin Kurtz

Sloane is a quick-witted storyteller, with a flair for the outlandish. From psych wards to grave robbers, she’s witnessed some peculiar things in her nearly eighty years. But the story her daughter, Rynn, yearns to hear most, is the one story Sloane never tells. When, in 1954, inside the cozy nook of Riverton, Alabama, Sloane watched helplessly as a single shot ripped apart her idyllic childhood.

After an aging Sloane has a brush with death, Rynn fears the truth behind that tragic night will stay buried forever unless she does the one thing she’s promised never to do—ask her mother to reveal what happened. When an opportunity suddenly presents itself, Rynn finds herself on a heartfelt trip down memory lane, with Sloane divulging the dark family secrets at the crux of her greatest story yet.

Woven within Sloane’s comical coming-of-age tale is the dramatic recount of her Uncle Bishop’s near-fatal fall in the craggy woods of The Ginhouse Hollow. Relegated to a quirky and obscure life by his injuries, Bishop’s world turns upside down when plucky Sloane and her moody sister, Faith, arrive for an extended family visit. The true consequence of Bishop’s head trauma, masked by routine, reveals itself. And what transpires ends in a tortuous penance for a man who was neither guilty nor innocent and twists the fates of all who were present that deadly night in 1954.

By 1985, Sloane has overcome the trauma of what she witnessed as a child. But when someone challenges her perception of what she saw, she’s forced to relive her painful memories once again and must find it in her heart to forgive the ones she loves most.

©2023 Koren Freel (P)2025 Koren Freel

Gripping tale, beautifully read

I loved this book. Mary Ellin Kurtz‘s voice drew me in from her first words. She brought the characters to life with a genuine emotion that matched my experience of the story as it unfolded. Freel’s story has a powerful (and unexpected!) ending, sensitively written, and read in that spirit by Kurtz. Very enjoyable!