What can I say? I liked it!

books:


	• The Virgin of Small Plains: A Novel Nancy Pickard Ballantine Books, 2007 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 36 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is a Fine Effort

For the most part, THE VIRGIN OF SMALL PLAINS is a very well done mystery. Pickard does a great job building the story, and all the characters are interesting and sympathetic. This book has a lot of good twists, and I was genuintely surprised by the ending.

The middle of THE VIRGIN OF SMALL PLAINS is somewhat slow, and almost resembles a Harlequin romance in spots. The plot did have some unbelievable holes in it, which some other reviewers have pointed out in detail. I am also not a big fan of books where coincidence plays a large role in the plot (which happens multiple times in this book). Still, the book is very enjoyable despite these minor flaws.

This book was nominated for the prestigious Edgar award, and won the Agatha award for best novel. I found it a very good read, and recommend it to readers who enjoy well written mysteries with a strong dash of romance.

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Nancy at her best

I've read all of Nancy Pickard's novels, and this is one of the most intriguing. The suspension of disbelief required is considerable, so the fact that she still carries off a real page-turner is all the more impressive.

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What can I say? I liked it!

This is the first I read of this author but noticed it because of the Agatha award. I am just about finished and I could not put it down (except to come to work today). I am looking forward to finishing it tonight and think I figured out the ending but don't know quite yet. I would have given it 5 stars but I am very stingy with those. This is a good read for anyone who likes mysteries or Kansas or both.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Small Plains, Kansas, January 23, 1987: In the midst of a deadly blizzard, eighteen-year-old Rex Shellenberger scours his father?s pasture, looking for helpless newborn calves. Then he makes a shocking discovery: the naked, frozen body of a teenage girl, her skin as white as the snow around her. Even dead, she is the most beautiful girl he?s ever seen. It is a moment that will forever change his life and the lives of everyone around him. The mysterious dead girl?the ?Virgin of Small Plains??inspires local reverence. In the two decades following her death, strange miracles visit those who faithfully tend to her grave; some even believe that her spirit can cure deadly illnesses. Slowly, word of the legend spreads.

But what really happened in that snow-covered field? Why did young Mitch Newquist disappear the day after the Virgin?s body was found, leaving behind his distraught girlfriend, Abby Reynolds? Why do the town?s three most powerful men?Dr. Quentin Reynolds, former sheriff Nathan Shellenberger, and Judge, Tom Newquist?all seem to be hiding the details of that night?

Seventeen years later, when Mitch suddenly returns to Small Plains, simmering tensions come to a head, ghosts that had long slumbered whisper anew, and the secrets that some wish would stay buried rise again from the grave of the Virgin. Abby?never having resolved her feelings for Mitch?is now determined to uncover exactly what happened so many years ago to tear their lives apart.

Three families and three friends, their worlds inexorably altered in the course of one night, must confront the ever-unfolding consequences in award-winning author Nancy Pickard?s remarkable novel of suspense. Wonderfully written and utterly absorbing, The Virgin of Small Plains is about the loss of faith, trust, and innocence . . . and the possibility of redemption.

From the Hardcover edition.

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