The Killing Ground (1982) by Mary Lee Settle

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The Killing Ground (1982)

by Mary Lee Settle

Canona, West Virginia

West Virginia: 3/10

 Author Mary Lee Settle is an interesting lady- she won the National Book Award in 1978 for Blood Tie and she helped to found the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1980.  The Killing Ground is the last novel in her blend of historical and family based auto-fiction, The Beulah Quintet.  The five volumes traverse thousands of miles and hundreds of years, from the state sanctioned murder of religious dissenters in 17th century England, through the settling of this corner of West Virginia by white people, to the present of the mid 1970's, when the author stand-in returns home to her coal-mining family to unravel the mystery of what is called in the description of the book the "murder" of her brother, though FWIW what happens to her brother, who dies hitting his head on the metal toilet of the local lock up after getting sucker punched by a drunken hillbilly (and distant relative) is, at best, manslaughter, murder requiring intent. 

  I can't find any discussion of The Killing Ground as auto-fiction but it read that way to me.  An early chapter features the author character describing her previous Beulah Quintet works in front of an audience of locals, and the description she gives of rich kid boho life in the late 50's, early 60's sounds pretty familiar.