Book obtained from: Library, audio
book [2013]
Description: The week
before Christmas, someone is playing pranks on the churches [most
denominations are included] of a small Virginia town, including
placing a cage of skunks in the choir loft of one and several hundred
ducks in the main sanctuary of another. Meg Langslow, the
protagonist, has the task of helping all of the churches find
alternate space to hold all their pre-Christmas activities. After a
small fire at one church, someone is found murdered.
Plot: The main plot
starts with Meg scheduling a church's activities at other churches'
facilities, because the first prank leaves skunk stench permeating
the entire church. All the churches in this small town are
accommodating to their needy neighbors. As the number of churches
“out of commission” grows, Megs job of creating the master
schedule becomes complicated. Then after one prank, a fire in the
basement of a church, the plot changes because a church elder is
found dead near the fire. Meg doesn't necessarily “investigate”
the murder, but in her efforts to schedule everything, she talks to
lots of people regarding the pranks and the murder.
Characterization: The
characters are reasonably developed and had their own personalities.
Meg, the main character, might be a little “too good” in that she
doesn't really have negative character traits. In fact, many of the
people in the story are somewhat two-dimensional in that respect.
Meg has 4yo twin sons. Each boy has his own personality, which was
nice to see, but their language development was much younger than
most of the 4yo boys I know. In fact, I was expecting a sub-plot on
speech therapy. I would guess the boys had the speech skills of
2-1/2 to 3yo boys. Once I pictured them as early 3yo, their speech
and roles became more believable.
Setting: Small town in
Virginia. The descriptions were good, I was able to picture every
scene. Some scenes were a tad over-described.
Other: The narrator was
a good match for Meg's character. A good person, mild,
easy-to-get-along-with. This book taught me what a “slow moving”
story was like. Lots of description, possibly too much. Meg had
quite a bit of interior thought throughout the story, which slowed it
down a bit. At several points I almost stopped reading because there
wasn't much action on the page. Some humor. Some of the chapter
breaks were in strange places, like right in the middle of
conversations but the end of one chapter didn't seem like a
cliff-hanger, so it seemed odd to break the chapter there. Almost
like “here's 12 pages, time for a new chapter” randomness.
Overall: A good holiday
mystery, somewhat slow paced. I would read more by this author, but
anything slower than this story I might stop reading.
Grade: B+
