I needed something to read while I
waited for a delivery last week (Heaven forbid I should just sit and wait) and Delectable
Mountains by Earlene Fowler (Berkeley, 2005) was at hand on the nearest
bookcase. Twelfth in her quilting series, I read this title years ago and
didn’t remember the plot. Having begun it, of course I had to read it through again.
Benni Harper is the curator of a
folk art museum in San Celina, California, a medium-sized fictional town in the
rural heart of central California, based on San Luis Obispo. She impulsively
married the local chief of police Gabriel Ortiz a few years earlier, the second
marriage for both, and the baggage they each carried into the relationship was
reflected in its tempestuousness which thankfully has abated.
In this story Gabe’s cousin Luis
arrives unexpectedly for a visit, a valuable violin is found to be missing from
the local history museum, and Benni discovers the slain body of the church
handyman, all while Benni and her grandmother Dove are trying to shepherd a
children’s musical program to fruition. The theft of the violin sends all of
the local public institutions into a flurry over security, which is generally
lax. The murder confounds the church, where everyone knew the handyman to be
kind, helpful, and reticent.
In this series each title is the
name of a quilt pattern and it is related to the plot. It’s also part of the
book jacket and book design. Here the children’s play is an adapted version of Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, the
17th century Christian allegory, and Delectable Mountains is a
stop near the end of the Pilgrim’s journey. Ms. Fowler makes no secret of her
deep religious faith, although it is more prominent in some entries than in
others; in this one Benni’s involvement with her church and its community is a
major component.
These books sound cozy but they are
far from fluffy. The violence of the crimes and their aftermath is not
downplayed; the resolution to this one is positively grim. The characters and
their complicated yet realistic relationships are thoughtfully sketched and
expanded over the arc of 15 titles. Apparently, there will be no more, the last
one was released in 2011. While it is always sad to see a carefully conceived
and executed series end, I would rather the author stop while she is on top of
her game than to produce ever weaker stories. I can think of Benni and Gabe continuing
their lives in an alternate universe (with its own independent bookstore!)
scrambling to get to work on time and to fit a half-dozen activities into a
single day yet making time to visit Dove and the ranch for dinner, and I can drop
in on them any time by pulling a book from my shelf.
·
Hardcover: 320 pages
·
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1st edition (May 3,
2005)
·
Language: English
·
ISBN-10: 0425202496
·
ISBN-13: 978-0425202494
Aubrey Hamilton ©2018
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on
Federal IT projects by day and reads mysteries by night.
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