The Ridge Walker is set in the 1940's at a time when the mountains of North Carolina still harbored remote and isolated communities. The novel explores the human drama of sacrifice, forgiveness, spirituality, and motherhood. With the nearest doctor over an hour away, people living along Stumpy Ridge have no access to healing except from Jess Shew, the last Celtic medicine woman east of the Smokies. When one of her patients dies, Jess takes the dead woman's child as her own, to protect it from the woman's estranged and dangerous boyfriend, Doug Helms. Doug Helms suspects Jess stole his son and...