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God in Concord: A Homer Kelly Mystery
 
 
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God in Concord: A Homer Kelly Mystery [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Jane Langton (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)


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Book Description

Homer Kelly Mystery June 24, 1992
When the elderly residents of Concord Breezes, a retirement community in Massachusetts, begin dying systematically, retired detective and Concord resident Homer Kelly works overtime to save the surviving seniors from an unknown killer. 15,000 first printing. $15,000 ad/promo.


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Liberally laced with wry Yankee humor, Langton's eighth Homer Kelly mystery, after The Dante Game , chides the American propensity to glorify the new while destroying the old. Few people in Concord, Mass., seem concerned when residents of Pond View Trailer Park, near Walden Pond and the municipal dump, begin to die. Most of the citizenry is more involved in the conflict over the proposed development of a mall and condominiums near the pond. Retired detective Homer Kelly suspects the deaths may not be accidental, although he knows the projected development doesn't involve Pond View property. Kelly is assisted in his (unofficial) investigation by Ananda Singh, a native of India who has made a pilgrimage to the locale immortalized by Henry David Thoreau. An invasion of Boston homeless people and a local election further divide the townspeople into two camps: those who seek to preserve Concord's historical ambience and those who want it to become urban and chic. Langton's simple, elegant pen-and-ink drawings add to the mood of her leisurely paced, well-crafted puzzler.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Ominous happenings in Concord, Mass., site of Thoreau's Walden and long the home base of the author's intellectual ex-cop Homer Kelly (National Enemy, etc.). Mega-developer Jefferson Grandison is determined to build a cutesy new town on the edge of the pond. His ardent henchman is Jack Markey, aided in turn by money-mad entrepreneur Mimi Pink, who's already overboutiqued a once-sensible Main Street. The elderly population of Walden Breezes, a trailer camp on desirable land, is being decimated at an alarming rate, despite Homer's pleas to local law enforcement to pay attention. Add to all this the invasion of a tacky little band of homeless from Boston; the emotional turmoil of handsome young Ananda Singh, a Thoreau worshiper from India whose pilgrimage almost costs him his life; and the ongoing conflicts between planning boards and nature lovers. The final upshot is a tidy triumph for the good guys--unrealistic, perhaps, but great good fun for the reader. The author's clever live drawings further enhance a richly textured, unflaggingly entertaining story. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Viking Adult; illustrated edition edition (June 24, 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0670842605
  • ISBN-13: 978-0670842605
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,249,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've written an awful lot of books. There are eleven for middle-aged children, mostly fantasies. The ones that have hung around the longest are "The Diamond in the Window" and "The Fledgling." The seventh in the series called "The Hall Family Chronicles" came out last spring, "The Mysterious Circus," and I've just finished writing an eighth, "The Dragon Tree."

All eighteen mysteries for adults have the same protagonists, Homer and Mary Kelly. Mary is the sensible one, but I confess I like Homer's rhapsodic flights of fancy. Most of their adventures happen in Massachusetts, but I've also sent them to farflung places I wanted to visit myself, like Florence, Oxford and Venice. Most of the novels are illustrated with my own drawings, but "The Escher Twist" has ten prints by the mysterious Dutch artist M. C. Escher, and the two historical mysteries are illustrated with nineteenth-century photographs.

 

Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Mystery and New England Nostalgia, June 21, 2008
By 
Rebecca M (Somerville, MA USA) - See all my reviews
Jane Langton's Homer Kelly is one part absent-minded professor, one part Doctor Who (sans time travel) and one part...well, Homer Kelly. Suffering from JFS (Jessica Fletcher Syndrome), mystery and death seem to "sniff out" Homer, rather than the other way around.

The story is not just merely about scenic suburban life and the petty trifles of its inhabitants. That provides the narrative façade for an astute commentary regarding the politics of development/city planning, environmentalism and the dangers/benefits of nostalgia.

Langton's characters are vividly multi-dimensional, torn in their allegiances by both heart and mind. The author asks the reader not to pass immediate judgment, suggesting that the potential for villainy resides within us as well, under the right set of circumstances.

I think this is one of Langton's better books in the series. Highly recommended for Thoreau buffs and those readers familiar with Boston/Concord, Massachusetts.
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4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars I liked this mystery!, May 20, 2001
I loved Thoreau's Walden -- and therefore loved the backdrop of this mystery -- and I love mysteries, though I read only about 1/3 of the mysteries I pick up and this one was fun and one you can put down, as each chapter was rather a chocolate; the characters were foibled, the conversations spirited and it was engagingly plotted.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
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First Sentence:
Charlotte's letter was a critical point like a change of state, like the instant when a kettle of water starts to boil, or a swelling balloon bursts with a loud report, or an accumulating pile of gravel steepens until the stones rattle thunderously downhill. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
laundry shack, seventieth floor, pink bag, quaking bog, wood thrush, lacrosse field, corporate gifts
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Pond View, Oliver Fry, Jefferson Grandison, Mimi Pink, Roger Bland, Ananda Singh, Walden Pond, Julian Snow, Homer Kelly, Henry Thoreau, Honey Mooney, Charlotte Harris, Alice Snow, Sarah Peel, Marjorie Bland, Walden Green, Lot Seventeen, Walden Street, Gowing's Swamp, Hope Fry, Pete Harris, Palmer Nifto, Bonnie Glover, Goose Pond, Mary Kelly
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Books on Related Topics (learn more)
 
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walden Pond by W. Barksdale Maynard
 

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