Feast Of Stephen (Paperback)

This book is a great page-turner. I have a really hard time finding books that actually keep me interested enough to finish them. This book kept me reading. I never wanted to put it down! Rosemary Aubert has a superb writing style that will keep you interested. She is very descriptive with an interesting perspective. -The park was full of children sliding down its steep slopes on pieces of cardboard and plastic, the almost fluorescent blues, purples and pinks of their winter jackets making a bright confetti splash of color against the snow- this was one of my favorite lines out of the book. I really felt as if I was there when I read this line. Overall this is a really great book.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a great mystery. A lot of this book contains a lof of court context though, so you have to have a slight interest in the court system. I really enjoyed this book and I hope that you will too!

Ellis doesn't really believe that Melia was murdered, only agreeing to look into it because of his respect for Queenie. Several other deaths of street people follow, all found with a different threatening Bible verse. Ellis doesn't mention it, but he has received several of these verses himself. The other link between all the deaths is that the victims appear to be court "groupies", those people who hang around courtrooms observing trials, possibly because they suffered at the hands of the justice system. It's difficult for Ellis to think about reentering the judicial environment because he is so far from the lofty heights he occupied as a judge. However, most fortuitously (and implausibly), he is offered the opportunity to serve as an Officer of the Court which gives him a bird's eye view of what's happening in various courtrooms.

Although the police don't seem terribly interested in the deaths of the impoverished, there is one man named Matt West who goes beyond a token effort. He finds out that the various deaths have been caused by administering the poison curare. And there appears to be some kind of connection to a crostic puzzle about saints that's appearing in the media.

Aubert has a gift for writing descriptive passages, some of them almost lyrical. She also introduces various elements of homelessness that bring the street people closer to the reader. What does one do with a winter coat when one has no home? How does one live with the constant rejection by the so-called civilized people? However, I felt she was less successful overall than in the first book in the series, Free Reign. For one thing, Ellis is not really that down and out. He earned some money and is able to live in a boarding house (which, oh so coincidentally, happened to be a house where he once lived with his family). It was much more interesting when his abode was a self-made shelter in the outdoors. Secondly, all the victims received one Bible verse and died; Portal has received about a dozen. I've never been too fond of the main character having an "aha!" moment where all becomes clear. Aubert is a good writer and the focus on the homeless interesting; but overall, the book is only average.