Review of "Mayhem in Mayberry" by Brian Lee Knopp

The immediacy of the cover brings the first of many adrenaline rushes. A ferocious looking dog-

mouth wide open exposes sharp teeth ready to chomp down hard while the title of the book written in white strikes from a manual type writer floats slightly distorted against black -hinting at the mystery of the multitude of grey areas that lie waiting in between black and white-areas about to be explored and exposed. Tension builds with the opening sentences of the Prologue. “Her pupils were blown black with stark fear and rage. She was tormented by voices in her head, by the micro-transmitters imbedded in her nose, by my intractable presence before her.”

Brian Lee Knopp, licensed P.I. in western North Carolina grabs you by the throat and takes you along for a wild and unpredictable ride. He describes the back roads “You are swallowed into the dark maw of overhanging trees and impenetrable rhododendron and laurel “hells,” softened up by the rutted crunching sections of gravel, and squeezed along the convoluted switchbacks drilled and blasted and looped along the nearly vertical walls of rock until you emerge…depleted…even after traveling one mile.” An apt metaphor for the warriors journey Knopp takes- an intimate and revealing examination of himself as well as the people he is investigating- managing to avoid the stereotyping often seen in descriptions of the Appalachian Mountains.

His love and admiration for the area and its people are evident even as he uses his extensive tracking skills as a woodsman and investigator to get the information he was hired to find. With an unflinching eye for detail and laugh out loud humor he shows us people and places most of us will never encounter- especially lying face down in mud with the very real chance of being shot at. Along the way we are given a front row seat as Knopp attempts to answer for himself that most puzzling and elusive of life’s questions. Who is Brian Lee Knopp anyway?

Brian Lee Knopp will read at the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival on Saturday, September 10 and lead a special writing workshop for the alternative school.

Review written by Burnsville musician/writer/fitness instructor/hoola-hooper Joy Boothe.