Kingdom of the Hollow, the Story of the Hatfield's and
McCoys
By Phillip E. Hardy
Lulu Press (2006)
Reviewed by April Sullivan for Reader Views (4/06)

Most people have heard of the famous feuding families the Hatfields and McCoys.  But how many of us know what actually transpired between the two?  “Kingdom of the Hollow” is a work of historical fiction that retells this legendary American story.  In 1878, Floyd Hatfield and Randolph
McCoy are neighbors in rural Kentucky.  Randolph accuses Floyd of stealing one of his hogs.  This accusation starts a chain reaction of fighting between the two families that lasts over a decade and results in over a dozen deaths.

Author Phillip Hardy provides the historical events of this feud in a straight-forward and chronological manner. At the same time, we get to know the many members of the two families and how they live.  The descriptions of Kentucky and West Virginia remind us of the remote cabin life of these mountain men and women and how important family can be in such a lifestyle.

Hardy writes "The Tug River region of the Appalachian Mountains was sparsely inhabited by a durable group of men and women.  Their families lived for generations sometimes suffering the wrath of nature or the hardships of the difficult terrain. Yet it was a territory of lush green hills covered with endless thickets and narrow, almost hidden valleys."

Even though the circumstances Hardy writes about happened in the late 1800s backwoods of Kentucky, it is still relevant today. We can learn a lot from these two families about the price that is paid for letting anger and revenge take over in a situation. Violence begets violence in an endless stream of killings.  Yet each time, the killer feels confident that he is taking
the necessary steps to avenge his family.  As the Hatfield's set off on an attack of the McCoys, Hardy writes, "By their reckoning, this final raid seemed the only way to abate the violence..."  Yet they were wrong.  The end was not near.

Before reading “Kingdom of the Hollow,” when I heard the phrase "feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys", I pictured neighbors bickering over silly things and letting that anger pass down among generations with the original reasoning forgotten, but not forgiven.  After reading the book, I will not throw this phrase around so lightly.  The Hatfield-McCoy feud is
less like a fight between neighbors and more like a gang war. Anyone interested in American cultural history will enjoy this book.  It is also a good read for any fiction lover who enjoys a good gun-slinging western, a crime novel with courtroom drama, or a Romeo and Juliet-style romance.