From Publishers Weekly
At the start of Langton's 18th Homer Kelly mystery (after 2003's
The Deserter), the Harvard professor and sometime sleuth resolves to spice up
Steeplechase, the book about Massachusetts churches he's writing, with a scandal. To that end, he and wife Mary piece together the story of a conflict between two 19th-century clergymen in fictional Nashoba, Mass., involving an ancient chestnut tree. Past and present play out in alternating sections. Period photos give faces to many of the characters, and Langton's own drawings add a touch of whimsy. The overall effect is like that of an antique album, albeit a somewhat fractured one. Similarly, the contrast of grim drama (in the person of disfigured Civil War veteran James Shaw) with comedy (in the figures of the Spratt brothers, who fly a hot-air balloon) gives an ambiguous, Edward Goreyesque feel to the proceedings. Absent is the tension of Langton's previous books, and even to call this disjointed tale a mystery would be a little generous. Still, fans will delight in her idiosyncratic characters and humor.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Homer Kelly, the Harvard historian and amateur sleuth, is a bit perplexed. A reprint of his little-read book becomes an unlikely best-seller. His publisher is clamoring for a sequel, so Homer buckles down and kicks his latest project, a survey of churches to be called
Steeplechase, into high gear. Soon he stumbles on a tantalizing mystery: a church that appears to have vanished sometime in the nineteenth century. In alternating chapters, Langton tells the story of the church and the giant chestnut tree that brought the rivalry between two churchmen to a violent conclusion in the small town of Nashoba, Vermont. This is the eighteenth Homer Kelly mystery, and the series is as fresh as it ever was. The key is the format: telling the story from shifting vantage points, past and present, allows us to get to know people who, to Homer, are faces in old photographs and voices in old stories. Clever storytelling.
David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
