Review: Dancing Dead

Dancing Dead Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Deborah Woodworth
Class/Genre: Mystery Historical Religious Fiction Ethnic
Series: Sister Rose Callahan # 6
Avon Mystery Original March, 2002 pub, 320 pages $6.50 US, $8.50 CAN

The great depression of the nineteen-thirties deepens and the Shaker village of North Homage, Kentucky, is feeling the pinch. Being largely self-contained, the village is better positioned to weather the difficulties. Still, as Eldress Rose Callahan notes with some discouragement, the size of their community is shrinking, hampering their ability to sustain themselves and find ready markets for their products in the world outside.

North Homage Shakers looked at the increasingly mobile world and decided they can participate in this new mobility by establishing a hostel, a place for weary travelers to rest overnight in their journeys. The real Shaker hostel that served as the model for this story was located some distance from the Shaker community, but this one is close by, just across the road from North Homage. That's an unfortunate circumstance, the way things turned out.

In the Spring of 1938, articles begin to appear in newspapers in surrounding counties telling the story of a mysterious ghost who apparently haunts the hostel and other buildings in the Shaker community. That story, plus the advantageous location of the village on main routes south of Cincinnati and not too far from Lexington or Louisville, brings an eclectic group of individuals to the hostel. All these travelers appear to have things to hide. Since the stories about the dancing ghost include questions of a mysterious missing fortune and a lovelorn heiress, one wonders, are these travelers merely seeking the lost jewelry or have they other motives?

Author Woodworth has provided a clever, interesting setup in the fashion of the better traditional mysteries. Her protagonist in this book continues to be Eldress Rose Callahan assisted by her sometime protegee and helper, a young girl named Gennie. Gennie is of the World and due, perhaps, to marry the local sheriff. For fans of the series, Sister Rose's usual nemesis, Brother Willhelm, is on a sales trip with Brother Andrew into the south, which imparts a somewhat different rhythm to the first part of the book than we have come to expect in this series.

Woodworth is true to the traditional mystery, while penning a book that continues to surprise us and she provides a most satisfying ending. At the same time she again provides readers another look inside one of the many small religious movements that periodically establish themselves in the nation's psyche during continental religious revivals.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Carl Brookins - RAM

Book Review: Dancing Dead