A Town Called Immaculate

Fans of Jan Karon's Mitford novels will best appreciate Anthony's debut, a religious soap opera set one eventful Christmas Eve in the town of Immaculate, Minn. Farmer Ray Marak, a Vietnam vet wounded both in body and spirit, has built a family with his librarian wife, Renee, who years earlier left college in order to care for Ray as well as her widowed father. Given their debts, Renee fears this Christmas will be the last they spend on the farm. Meanwhile, bank manager Josh Werther, who once had a thing for Renee, can't resist the flirtatious advances of a much younger female teller. Aware that a huge snowstorm is bearing down on the community, Father Dimer warns his flock not to venture out on dangerous roads to attend midnight Mass. A series of contrived coincidences, which lead to a dramatic and violent confrontation, may invoke groans from those unable to buy into the author's themes of trial and redemption. (Mar.)