Jan Karon's Mitford series meets The Exorcist
? No, it doesn't fly, and that's why Valentine, known for her gentle Karon–look-alike Dorsetville series (On a Wing and a Prayer
), comes up short in mixing a woman's church group with a supernatural horror theme. When a local rectory is haunted, it's up to Father Rich Melos and the closet town psychic, Jane Edwell—plus a band of rug hookers (think Charlene Baumbich's "Happy Hookers" from the Dearest Dorothy series)—to keep the powers of darkness at bay. Evil manifests as a black mist with red eyes, making knocking sounds, levitating furniture, etc. The plot elements feel shopworn: there's the obligatory smalltown cafe, ancient manuscripts that resurface and the handsome priest who is a member of a secret order. Valentine succumbs to weak mechanics, telling instead of showing, offering redundant information and employing clichéd phrases ("The midafternoon sky was gunmetal gray, which matched Father Rich Melos's mood"). Characters pull convenient vials of holy water out of their purses whenever evil looms. Perhaps the most problematic scenes have Valentine trying to mix humor and horror: "Now Vera, don't tease the demon...." (June 6)
