Set in Eastern Kentucky a few years after the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud, The Devil's Back appeals to a variety of readers. Romantics will find its May-December love story irresistible. Thrill-seekers will delight in its depiction of a daring steamboat race, a home invasion, and a hanging. And linguists will find its use of the Appalachian dialect authentic, charming, and rich in imaginative figures of speech like "cold as a cow's tit in an ice storm." This novel has a number of lovable characters, among them, the protagonists, Adam and Laurey, as well as characters the reader will love to hate, such as Josh Liggins and Claude Thurston. But there are no stereotypical characters in the cast - - all are very human, partaking of good and bad qualities to varying degrees. In the tradition of Lee Smith and Robert Morgan, Parsons has added another gem to Appalachian literature.