My name is Dovey Coe and I reckon it don't matter if you like me or not. I'm here to lay the record straight, to let you know them folks saying I done a terrible thing are liars. I aim to prove it, too. I hated Parnell Caraway as much as the next person, but I didn't kill him . Dovey Coe says what's on her mind, so it's no secret that she can't stand Parnell Caraway. Parnell may be the son of the richest man in town, but he's mean and snobby, and Dovey can't stand the fact that he's courting her sister, Caroline, or the way he treats her brother, Amos, as if he were stupid just because he can't hear. So when Parnell turns up dead, and Dovey's in the room where his body is discovered, she soon finds herself on trial for murder. Can the outspoken Dovey sit still and trust a city slicker lawyer who's still wet behind the ears to get her out of the biggest mess of her life? * "Dovey is an original character who speaks with a mountain twang that brings the vivid setting to life." ― School Library Journal, STAR "This fabulously feisty heroine will win your heart." ― Kirkus Reviews "A delightful book, thoughtful and full of substance." ― Booklist "Bears positive messages about family pride, self-reliance, and inner beauty. Dovey's strength of character alone is well worth the reader for young middle school girls. A worthy addition to any middle school collection." ― VOYA Frances O’Roark Dowell is the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Dovey Coe , which won the Edgar Award and the William Allen White Award; Where I’d Like to Be ; The Secret Language of Girls and its sequels The Kind of Friends We Used to Be and The Sound of Your Voice, Only Really Far Away ; Chicken Boy ; Shooting the Moon , which was awarded the Christopher Award; the Phineas L. MacGuire series; Falling In ; The Second Life of Abigail Walker , which received three starred reviews; Anybody Shining; Ten Miles Past Normal ; Trouble the Water ; the Sam the Man series; The Class ; How to Build a Story ; Hazard ; and, most recently, Then a House Fell on Her Head . She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina. Connect with Frances online at FrancesDowell.com. Dovey Coe By Frances O'Roark Dowell Aladdin Paperbacks Copyright © 2001 Frances O'Roark Dowell All right reserved. ISBN: 9780689846670 Chapter 1 My name is Dovey Coe, and I reckon it don't matter if you like me or not. I'm here to lay the record straight, to let you know them folks saying I done a terrible thing are liars. I aim to prove it, too. I hated Parnell Caraway as much as the next person, but I didn't kill him. I know plenty of folks who thought about it once or twice, after Parnell shot a BB gun at their cats or broke their daughters' hearts. They're the same ones who go around now making out like Parnell was an angel, a regular pillar of society. The truth is, there ain't no one in Indian Creek who didn't believe Parnell Caraway was the meanest, vainest, greediest man who ever lived. Seventeen years old and rotten to the core. Of course, his daddy being the richest man in town meant Parnell could do about whatever he pleased without anybody saying boo back to him. Most of the folks who live in town rent their houses from Homer Caraway and buy their dry goods from his store, and they know better than to cross him. You so much as look at Homer Caraway wrong and he can make your life right miserable. Every time I start complaining about having to walk a half mile down the mountain to school every morning, I remember how lucky we are to own our land. It ain't much -- four acres, a five-room house, and a barn -- but it keeps us Coes from being beholden to Homer Caraway, and I'd walk ten miles to school to keep it that way. I know it pained Parnell that we weren't indebted to his daddy. Maybe if we had been, my sister Caroline would have married him the way he kept asking her to do. Caroline Coe was the one thing Parnell wanted he couldn't have. As conceited as Parnell was, it took him a long time to figure that out. But I'm getting ahead of myself, which I do from time to time. You probably want to know where I'm from and who my family is, the particulars folks tend to be interested in. Like I said, my name is Dovey Coe. There have been Coes living in Indian Creek, North Carolina, since the beginning of time, and I expect there always will be. We're mountain folk, and once you been living in the mountains for a while, it's hard to live anywhere else. You can walk over to the graveyard behind the church in town and see Coes going as far back as 1844. The most recent stone belongs to my Granddaddy Caleb, who passed on two years ago, when I was ten. It says: HERE LIES CALEB COE, LOVING HUSBAND TO REBECCA COE, FATHER TO MATTHEW, LUKE, AND JOHN COE. BORN MAY 17, 1861. DIED DECEMBER 2, 1926. MAY HE WALK WITH THE LORD. John Coe is my daddy. He's what they call a jack-of-all-trades, meaning he can fix anyt