Tentmaker, The [Paperback]

Michelle Blake (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: G.P. Putnams (1999)
• ASIN: B0012GBPM8
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,560,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

When my daughter graduated from college, our family gift to her was a trip to the Sawtooth Mountains and the River of No Return, in central Idaho. She had seen a series of photographs of the region and its people, taken by the photographer Susan McPhee , and had been so moved by the landscape and faces that she vowed to get there someday. From my point of view, this was an excellent gift, because I got to go with her. The picture above was taken outside the town of Stanley, after a week at the Diamond D ranch, a hidden gem of a guest ranch inside the Frank Church Wilderness Area, the largest wilderness area in the lower forty-eight. I look sad because we were leaving the next day, and I knew I would miss the beauty and the people.
Art isn't required to serve some useful function, but despite itself, it often does. A photography show drew my daughter and me to Idaho for one of the great adventures of our lives. Dorothy Sayers's novel Gaudy Night introduced me to the possibility of a life of the mind, for women, where books and thinking and truth held sway over the polite lies and pincurls of my southern upbringing.
I've been a writer for all of my adult life, and most of my childhood. I wrote poetry for the first fifteen or twenty years (depending on when you start counting). During most of that period I taught writing and literature, and founded and directed a graduate writing program at Warren Wilson College. Later, I attended Harvard Divinity School, where I got my Master of Theological Studies and for a short while considered seeking ordination in the Episcopal Church. Instead, I started a mystery series that features Lily Connor, a priest and activist in Boston.
This was the right choice. I would not have been a good priest. I am an impatient perfectionist who prefers to be left alone with a good book or a blank page, or both. I have just finished a new novel that is not part of the mystery series, though it does include an art heist and a psychic. I live with my husband, the writer Dennis McFarland, in rural Vermont, and our two grown children, when we can lure them home.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AN ADMIRABLE DEBUT, August 24, 2001

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Tentmaker (Lily Connor) (Mass Market Paperback)

She's willful; she's prayerful. She is by turns disdainful, compassionate, frightened, or resolute. She is Lily Connor, crime solver [come] Episcopal priest, introduced in poet Michelle Blake's assured and satisfying debut novel, The Tentmaker. As we learn a tentmaker is "an ordained priest who works at a trade outside the church, sometimes serving as interim priest for parishes in search of full-time rectors." That is precisely what native Texan Lily is called to do. Although, 36-year-old Lily in her jeans, boots and clerical collar does seem an incongruity at St. Mary of the Garden, a decidedly upscale Boston church. Upon arrival she finds a cool welcome, and a wounded parish. So, she prays: "She prayed for compassion, she prayed for insight, and she prayed, if it was anywhere in the scope of God's will, for release from this job, which was driving her crazy." Initially, Lily attributes the parishioners' indifference to their grief over the sudden death of their rector, a beloved figure who had served the church for many years. Deeming her position "babysitting rich people, " she shares her reservations with Charlie Cooper, a friend from her seminary days, and now an Episcopal monk. He had encouraged her to take the position and now counsels her to be patient. Before long a series of unexplainable events take place which lead her to believe that there is something more to deal with at St. Mary of the Garden than aloofness and pain. With the blessing of an ally in the church, Bishop Spencer, Lily begins to look into the decidedly dark doings at the church. When a prominent family accuses the late rector of seducing their young son, Roy, the water is muddied even further. Lily is drawn into a vortex of ignominious happenings when she discovers an almost fatal accident in the church basement, then is confounded by the sudden appearance then disappearance and near death of Roy. In a stunning denouement she finds herself alone with a murderer who despises her. Yet, it is during this confrontation that she comes to realize in part what her priestly vows should mean. Lily's search for answers has been as much for herself as for the parish, as she struggles with her own crisis of faith. Ms. Blake has pulled off quite a coup with The Tentmaker and her creation of a protagonist who is both human and humane, as Lily gives vent to emotions, fights temptation, and bridles at what she considers to be the exclusionary practices of the Episcopal church. Thus readers are not only entertained but enlightened, and left eagerly waiting for the next Lily Connor adventure. - Gail Cooke

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent story from a real insider's perspective, November 18, 1999

By 

Linda M (Denver) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tentmaker (Lily Connor Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Lilly Conner is a refreshing character to see inhabiting not only a mystery but also a priest's collar -- passionate, occasionally insecure, as opinionated as she is committed, but always searching for a closer relationship with the God who fuels her commitment. And Charlie! His character alone was worth the price of the book. Lilly and Charlie's conversations and sluething bring to light some very real controversies facing the church today. As a Boston/Cambridge resident, I also appreciated Blake's careful attention to physical details -- a small but important part of bringing authencity and life to the story.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Episcopalian Rates Rev. Lily Connor, July 16, 2002

By 

John Hanscom (Anchorage, AK United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Tentmaker (Lily Connor) (Mass Market Paperback)

From the standpoint of an "insider," this was a fine book. I have known many "tentmaker" priests and deacons and have been an Episcopalian for 30 years. The mystery is exciting, but equally as good is the internal politics of the parish and diocese, and the wrestlings with faith of all the characters.