L.A. Times Book Review – December 29, 2002
“[Ron Rash] refuses to lay on the corn pone as he deftly orchestrates this backwoods mystery about a family up to its neck in trouble… In revealing the tangled interconnections between Billy, Amy and Holland, Rash gives us something considerably more complex than an Appalachian whodunit… Equal parts vintage crime novel and Southern Gothic, full of aching ambivalence and hard compromises, and rounded off by bad faith and bad choices, One Foot in Eden is a veritable garden of earthly disquiet.”
-- By Mark Rozzo

The Journal Constitution – December 29, 2002
“Ron Rash's One Foot in Eden begins with an interesting mystery set in 1950s South Carolina… Nearly 20 years after the murder, the story is told from the viewpoint of Amy and Billy's son, a young man who finally learns the truth about his birth father. The son's search for his father's remains leads to a terrible event – as well as a sense of closure… Rash's characters have a heroic quality as they struggle to fill the empty spaces in their hearts. They also have a poetic intensity that speaks of a deep connection to the land.”
-- Hal Jacobs

Charlotte Observer – November 11, 2002
“Reading Rash's tale is like listening to a plaintive mountain ballad about a time and place long vanished: the lyrics are sweet and mournful, wistful and dark. And, oh, does One Foot in Eden linger! …Rash's story is written with the crisp precision and evocative images you'd expect from a talented poet, especially one with deep roots in the region. His characters are vivid, thoroughly human. And his narrative unfolds in mesmerizing fashion... Great stuff, this novel – a page-turner with a palpable, moving sense of time and place, and an abiding compassion for the troubled humans who move through its pages.”
-- Polly Paddock

Creative Loafing (Charlotte) – October 9, 2002
“Ron Rash writes like a landscape painter and it is the land that is the heart of this haunting tale of love, murder and loss. The characters in his story are motivated by a yearning to leave some part of themselves in this world after they are gone, something connected to the valleys and mountains they so dearly love… This is a book of images from the natural world, a world that is totally integrated into the characters' daily lives… Finally, it's a rich and lyrical language that is Ron Rash's gift to us, from the wise and moving words of the people in his novel to the whispers and secrets given up by the land he knows so well.”
-- Diana Pinckney