Sara's Reviews > The Ballad of Tom Dooley

It’s funny how easy it is to make people believe what they want to believe or what they are most afraid of.

The Ballad of Tom Dooley is a song by the Kingston Trio which probably caught the imagination of everyone who heard it in the late 1950s. It is based, very loosely, on a true story, but if you try to make sense of it from just the lyrics of the song, you will be destined to failure.

What Sharyn McCrumb has done is research the events and subsequent trial of Tom Dula, the actual man hanged in North Carolina for the senseless murder of Laura Foster, and reconstructed a version of the story that makes sense from the known facts. She is convinced that she got it right, and she well may have.

The story is character driven, and McCrumb, herself, compares it to Wuthering Heights, with Ann Melton and Tom Dula easily seen as Kathy and Heathcliff-like lovers. I have heard it said that one person always loves a little more, and perhaps that is true. In this case, maybe sadly so. This novel explores what can happen when a psychopath, a narcissist, a handsome layabout and a promiscuous girl become entangled in too close quarters and the results are manipulation and tragedy.

For the last few days, I needed a break from any reading that required close concentration or careful thought, and this book filled the bill. It was very enjoyable, like reading a murder mystery, but much more centered upon the psychological aspects of the characters themselves. We knew Tom Dula would be hanged at the outset, so this book was much more about the journey than the destination. I will not hesitate to read McCrumb again, right now I have got to try to stop singing.

“Hang down your head, Tom Dooley, hang down your head and cry. Hang down your head, Tom Dooley. Poor boy, you’re bound to die.”