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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What a fun ride, December 9, 2007
This review is from: Preaching to the Corpse: An Advice Column Mystery (Paperback)
Preaching to the Corpse offers three things I look for in a mystery: a lovable heroine, a fun story and an escape (for me) to an authentic-feeling new place, in this case, a small-town New England church.
The heroine, psychologist/advice columnist Dr. Rebecca Butterman, is appealing because she's wise but not smug. She understands people and their motives. But she also realizes that she's better at solving other people's problems than her own.
The drama comes when Dr. Butterman is immediately drawn into a puzzling whodunit - Who killed Lacy Bailes, a churchgoing lady in the thick of some bitter church politics? Lacy was the head of a search committee to find a new assistant pastor.
The most fun in the book, I thought, came from the bitterness of the search. One church lady denounces a female candidate, at one point, because she believes the job should go to a man. "We just aren't built the same way," she explains. A man, meanwhile, is hostile to a candidate he suspects is gay.
After several fun twists and turns, the book ends in an improbable, but exciting, way that makes Preaching to the Corpse, all in all, a very fun ride.
Looking forward to the next installment.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dr. Butterman Does it Again, December 15, 2007
This review is from: Preaching to the Corpse: An Advice Column Mystery (Paperback)
Rebecca Butterman is a psychologist who writes an advice column for "Bloom!" magazine and gets her patients through their hardest moments. She loves to cook, has a crush on the local police detective, and somehow manages to get herself involved in murder mysteries as a unofficial (but exceptionally good) sleuth. So when her pastor discovers a church member's body and the locals suspect foul play, Dr. Butterman's warm heart and curious mind come to the rescue. What follows is an enjoyable story that feels very much like you're talking to a good friend who just happens to run around Connecticut solving police cases. When she's not confronting gun wielding villains or helping folks figure themselves out she's usually in the kitchen, making something scrumptious. As a foodblogger I can't help but mention that one of my favorite things about Robert Isleib's novels is how food plays a major role. So often authors gloss over what their characters' eat for breakfast, what they bake for themselves when they're down, how the taste and smell of a dish is affected by their mood. Isleib shares all those details with you in an engaging, often mouthwatering way - and now that she has begun sharing a few recipes on her blog I'm looking forward to recreating some of Dr. Butterman's treats. Which is to say, I'd like to enjoy the comfort food without having to earn it by solving a murder mystery!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An unwilling participant, July 6, 2008
This review is from: Preaching to the Corpse: An Advice Column Mystery (Paperback)
This novel is a sequel to the author's previous novel, "Deadly Advice," and features the same main character, Dr. Rebecca Burrerman, a practicing psychologist who also writes an advice column.
Dr. Butterman receives a telephone call in the middle of the night. A woman from her church congregation has died under suspicious circumstances. She is dragooned into replacing the woman as chairman of the church's search committee that has been involved in finding a new assistant minister. Dr. Butterman is not a joiner, and has normally avoided becoming involved in things like committees. She now finds herself in the middle of church politics and disagreements. She has also been asked by police inspector Meigs to check into a few things, but admonished to stay out of the investigation into the death. Ha! She of course sticks her nose into things because events seem to be related to the work of the committee. Also, people will talk to her when they will not talk to the police.
There are a few sidelights about her family, including references to her father who decamped when she was a child. And there is the situation between Inspector Meigs an his wife, who is suffering from ALS.
I would note that the author is a practicing psychologist. She seems to be a dog person, although Dr. Butterman has a cat (as Dr. Butterman says, the man in her life purrs and uses a litterbox).
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