The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey: A Nonfiction Novel

by Bland Simpson

Overview

As compelling as fiction, The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey tells the dramatic story of the disappearance of nineteen-year-old Nell Cropsey from her riverside home in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, in November 1901. Bloodhounds, detectives, divers, and even a psychic were brought in to search for her, and the case immediately became a national sensation. Bland Simpson, who first heard the tale as an Elizabeth City schoolboy, weaves this true story into a colorful nonfiction account, told in three first-person voices: Nell's sister Ollie; famous newspaper editor W. O. Saunders, who covered the case as a young reporter; and Jim Wilcox, Nell's beau, who was implicated in the case. Nell and Jim's romance, her disappearance, the great search, the trials, and their aftermath are artfully reconstructed from interviews, court records, and newspaper accounts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807844328
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/01/1993
Edition description:	1
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.42(d)
Lexile:	1080L (what's this?)

About the Author

Bland Simpson teaches writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is the author of The Great Dismal: A Carolinian's Swamp Memoir and The Heart of the Country, a novel of southern music. He is also a member of the Red Clay Ramblers, the internationally acclaimed string band.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey begs to be set to music. Haunting and elegiac as a folk ballad, the voices intertwine—soprano, tenor, and bass—in a blend of tragic mystery and raw pain.—Margaret Maron, author of Bootlegger's Daughter

Bland Simpson brings a whole culture brilliantly to life—all the sounds and sights of 'down East,' with wonderful dialogue and real, page-turning suspense. Life is stranger than fiction, especially in the case of Nell Cropsey.—Lee Smith, author of The Devil's Dream

Bland Simpson writes of a small town tragedy with words so vivid and powerful that you see, smell, hear, and taste these people and this era in time.—Tim McLaurin, author of Keeper of the Moon

Editorial Reviews

Subtitled ``a nonfiction novel,'' Simpson's ( The Great Dismal ) tale is based on the disappearance of 19-year-old Nell Cropsey from her Elizabeth City, N.C., home in 1901. The last person known to have seen Nell alive was her suitor Jim Wilcox: he had called on her to end their deteriorating relationship and, he said, left her crying on her father's porch. Bloodhounds tracked Nell's trail to the end of a pier on the nearby Pasquotank River, but it was weeks before her body was found floating in the water. Popular feeling convicted Jim of Nell's murder even before his trial (Nell's father refused to lead a lynch mob), and Jim served time, although he repeatedly protested his innocence and the evidence against him was circumstantial. Simpson alternates third-person narration and pastiches of town gossip with first-person narration by Wilcox, Nell's sister Ollie Cropsey and newspaperman W. O. Saunders, who covered the case. Not one of them can reveal why Simpson wrote this book. All but devoid of suspense--despite the fact that we never learn how Nell died--it has the flavor of a well-executed writing exercise on voice and storytelling, a demonstration of style for the sake of style. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Simpson persuasively re-creates the decorously frenzied, boomtown atmosphere of turn-of-the-century Elizabeth City in the grip of a tabloid mystery complete with bloodhounds, anonymous tipsters, and a famous spiritualist."—Kirkus Reviews



An arresting and elegant meditation on guilt and innocence and the inscrutability of human behavior."—Philadelphia Inquirer



In The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey, Simpson weaves a compelling story of beauty and despair."—Richmond Times-Dispatch



Bland Simpson conveys images for all senses and his characters are powerful and authentic. The story is a haunting one."—Mostly Murder

From the Publisher