Davis Alexander Grubb is a prolific writer and self-styled storyteller whose novels and tales have chronicled the people and events of the Ohio River Valley region of West Virginia, where he was born and raised. He is best known for his first published novel, The Night of the Hunter (1953), now considered a minor classic in modern American literature. In the works that followed, however, Grubb has continued to expand his panorama of this region. Given to the idea that "no one book should be like any of the others," he has experimented with a number of novelistic techniques and styles; and among his novels can be found examples of the historical romance, the mystery or detective story, the fantasy, the novel of social consciousness, the proletarian novel, and the tall tale. What has resulted is a large, often uneven body of work, which is nevertheless impressive in its...