The Sirens of Vulture Creek is set in the mountains of Western Pennsylvania when the mines and steel mills are dying but the hunting ethic, often marked by brutality, lives. The main character is Rachel Maria McGinty, who has no education but a very good nose. This is her book and her consciousness. For forty years she has lived in a male cocoon, looking the other way, ignoring transgressions large and small. Her coming to consciousness has a touch of comedy and needs the help of a nosey neighbor, a fortune-teller, a priest, and enough deaths to get her attention. Rachel and her daughters discover that fire burns everyone clean.