Sins of a Shaker Summer by Deborah Woodworth

 

First Line: "I'm thirsty," seven-year-old Betsy grumbled, plunking her cracked white teacup on the ground.

 

Sister Rose Callahan is slowly acclimating to being the new eldress of her community of Believers in Kentucky, even though Brother Wilhelm, the elder of the community, would like nothing better than to see her thrown out on her ear.

 

However politics and emotions should take a backseat when two little girls are poisoned. All signs point to the medicinal herb shop and the group of Believers recently arrived from another community who work there. Something isn't right, and Sister Rose is determined to find out what it is in order to keep the community she loves safe.

 

~

 

Deborah Woodworth's historical series featuring Sister Rose Callahan is one that I've enjoyed from the first book, Death of a Winter Shaker. One of my cherished memories is of visiting Pleasant Hill, a Shaker community in Kentucky when I was sixteen. I found the history of the Shakers and their accomplishments fascinating, and I still do. The second Sister Rose Callahan starts walking the streets and paths of her community, I am immediately transported to Pleasant Hill.

 

Woodworth's research is impeccable, and she weaves it all seamlessly into her story. There's no feeling that you've been thrown into history class and are about to face a pop quiz. 

 

The mystery in Sins of a Shaker Summer is a good one. Readers are quickly drawn to the new group of Believers who arrived from another community. They're secretive, don't talk much, and they seem to be conducting strange experiments in the medicinal herb shop, which is one of the many ways the Believers earn money. But what exactly is going on, and which one of the newcomers is responsible? This takes some work to figure out.

 

But no matter how strong the mystery is or how wonderful the sense of place and time is, the story isn't going to shine unless the characters do. The characters shine in this book. Sister Rose is a conscientious, compassionate woman who wants everything in her community to run well and for everyone to be healthy and happy. She also is a first-rate investigator. Brother Wilhelm, the other person in charge is a rabid fundamentalist. He wants everything like it was in the Good Old Days, and he believes Rose is too modern and should be thrown out of the community. Wilhelm wants to ignore the outside world even though the Shakers must rely on non-Believers to buy their goods and for converts to their faith.

There are also other dynamics among the characters. Newcomer Sister Patience is causing concern and divisiveness with her visions and pronouncements, and it's up to Sister Rose to find out if the woman is a true visionary or a fraud. And... looming over the entire community is the outside world. Everyone is suffering through the Depression, and when any little thing goes wrong, there must be someone to blame. For those living outside the Shaker community, the best scapegoats are always the Believers. They're weird. They believe in celibacy. Their religious services sometimes look like a circus sideshow. Yes, the Believers are very easy to blame for anything that goes wrong, and it's this attitude that brings a very real sense of menace to Sins of a Shaker Summer and the other books in the series.

If you're in the mood for a historical mystery that will transport you to another time and place, one with a strong mystery and even stronger characters, I recommend Deborah Woodworth's Sister Rose Callahan series. It's been one of my "go-to" series from the very first book.

Sins of a Shaker Summer by Deborah Woodworth

ISBN: ‎ 0739401394

Avon Books © 1999

Hardcover, 261 pages

 

Historical Mystery, #3 Sister Rose Callahan mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Paperback Swap 

A Deadly Shaker Spring by Deborah Woodworth

First Line: We buried her this afternoon, my sister, my heart.

It's 1937, and much of the United States is still firmly in the grip of the Depression. Times are hard, and emotions are high, especially in the small community of Languor, Kentucky. People are tired of doing without, and they need a scapegoat to help them feel better. When people with ulterior motives and carefully planned agendas come to town, they play people's fears like a well-tuned orchestra.

As a result, ominous things begin to happen in the Shaker community of North Homage. A sister suffers a mysterious head wound, a sackful of rats is set loose in the schoolhouse, food is stolen, buildings are defaced, and hate-filled messages point to a very real threat of violence. It is up to Sister Rose Callahan to set everything straight, and the new eldress of the community begins to find clues in the journals of her predecessor. The threats come from within North Homage and from without, and they combine both old and new secrets. With that threat of violence hanging over the peaceful religious community, Sister Rose must work fast.

The trouble with reading so many series is the fact that some are bound to fall by the wayside. Before I began my book blog, I read the first Sister Rose Callahan mystery, Death of a Winter Shaker, and I really enjoyed it. As a teenager, I once visited the Shaker community of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, and learned how fascinating the Shakers were. Besides their gorgeous furniture, they were quite innovative in architecture, interior design, agriculture, and labor-saving devices. Since they were celibate, their communities depended on converts and orphans to survive and thrive. Woodworth's series is set when most Shaker villages had died out. The first book took up the topic of "winter Shakers"-- those homeless people who would convert to Shakerism during the winter so they would have food, clothing, and shelter, only to leave when spring came. This second book focuses on intolerance, a theme that is very pertinent today.

Sister Rose Callahan is a woman who was brought up as a Shaker but lived out in the world for a short period of time, so she's more than capable of dealing with non-believers. But with the shortage of members, she's had to assume the role of eldress-- caring for the spiritual health of the female members of the community-- as well as trustee-- the person who takes care of the financial side of things. This wouldn't be an easy task for anyone, but it's particularly tough for Sister Rose, since Elder Wilhelm is a thorn in her side, constantly harping about the good old days and completely unwilling to deal with the problems of the present in any real meaningful way.

As in the first book, A Deadly Shaker Spring has a marvelous sense of place and culture. You really don't need to know a thing about the Shakers to understand what's going on. If you do know about them-- like I do-- your knowledge will be enhanced. Since readers will know the person (or persons) responsible, this mystery isn't a whodunit, but a whydunit, and although I did find one character's conversion at the end to be too quick to be completely believable, I still found this to be an excellent read. Even after more than ten years between reading the first book and the second, I immediately fell back in with the characters, and that, to me, is a sign of how good Deborah Woodworth's writing is. I'm glad I have all the books in the series waiting for me. They are "reading money" in the bank.

A Deadly Shaker Spring by Deborah Woodworth

ISBN: 0380792036

Avon Books © 1998

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Historical Mystery, #2 Sister Rose Callahan mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Alibris.


 

A Simple Murder by Eleanor Kuhns

First Line: By late afternoon William Rees was past Rumford and heading southeast, almost to Durham and the coast.

It's Maine in 1795, and traveling weaver William Rees has come to Durham to find his son David. Five years ago Rees loaded his loom in his wagon and set off for a nomadic life after the death of his beloved wife Dolly. Now he's discovered that his sister and brother-in-law have treated David worse than the hired help, and David has run away to the Shaker community of Zion, outside Durham.

As a traveling weaver, Rees has always been an outsider with a knack for solving the various  crimes with which he comes in contact. When he's asked to look into the death of Sister Charity in the Zion community, Rees accepts. The time spent in the area will give him a chance to finish a local weaving commission and to spend time with his son. What he doesn't count on is how very complicated the death of the young Shaker woman will turn out to be... or how attracted he'll become to another woman living nearby.

Kuhns does an excellent job of portraying the era and the Shaker religion without being heavy handed. She also doesn't use the common speech of the day, opting instead for plain modern speech. This may not give the full flavor of the era, but since modern slang isn't used either, it's not jarring and the meaning is always clear.

Another thing I appreciated was a bit more subjective. Rees is constantly having to hitch up his horse and wagon and race off to some village or farm, often spending hours holding reins and seated on a rigid board. This isn't anything different than many other characters in other historical mysteries I've read, but in this book, when Rees gets a chance to stop and get down from the wagon, his body is full of aches and pains-- as it should be. (After all, he didn't just travel in an air-conditioned Lincoln Town Car on a paved road!) In just that one small detail, the author won a fan.

The plot is a complicated one that I solved at just about the same speed as the main character, which is another good thing. I know I'm not Sherlock Holmes, so if I start figuring out too many mysteries in their early stages, I know something's wrong.

The characters are where author Eleanor Kuhns really shines. Rees is a grieving man who made a mistake when he gave his young son to someone else to raise. He's learned how wrong he was, and he's determined to make amends-- which might not be as easy as he thinks with a young teenage boy. Rees has also become attracted to Lydia Jane Farrell, a young woman living in a small house on the Zion property who's brought in to help Rees interview the Shaker women. Lydia is fiercely independent, opinionated, and full of her own secrets, and it's not long before Rees finds it difficult indeed to stay away from her.

The Shaker religion is a fascinating one, and the author portrays it in an honest yet sympathetic light. The Shakers believed "Hands to work, Hearts to God" but they were really no different from any other group of humans living together-- bundles of strengths and weaknesses, sometimes in tandem, sometimes at cross purposes.

Since William Rees is a weaver who's gone from Georgia all the way up to Maine and shows no signs of wanting to stop, I look forward to reading more of his efforts in crime solving... as well as his developing relationships with his son and with Lydia.

A Simple Murder by Eleanor Kuhns

ISBN: 9781250005533

Minotaur Books © 2012

Hardcover, 336 pages

Historical Mystery, #1 Will Rees mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Paperback Swap