Ghost of the Ozarks

Ostensibly Ghost of the Ozarks is a complex murder mystery. Some of the text chronicles a supposed homicide (of the young farmhand Connie Franklin) in rural Arkansas in 1929. As that narrative unfolds, the reader is treated to drama, intrigue, and suspense. Central to both the event and the raucous trial that ensued is the identity of a purportedly deceased man, a “ghost of the Ozarks,” who miraculously returns shortly before the hearings commence. Thereafter, the community divides over the veracity of this individual's claim to be the real Connie Franklin amid a mounting media circus. Ultimately, the reader is left with far more questions than answers regarding a now-little-known affair that nevertheless captivated the nation eight decades ago. If Brooks Blevins's work only described the Franklin scenario, it would still be a text worthy of high praise due to its painstaking research. The notes are replete with citations from obscure Arkansas newspapers, records from rural county courthouses, interesting oral histories, and other sources that were assuredly hard to gather. There is much more to the book, however, than the chronicle that is its foundation. The account is a gateway to a host of other insights that prompt reflection upon the ambivalence of place and the process of historical investigation. As Blevins asserts, the story of Franklin is fundamentally a “rumination on perspectives” and often illustrates the “precariousness of truth” (pp. xx, 176

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