Review of A WICKED GOOD PLAY

I enjoyed Tony Burton's first Reverend Wilson novel, BLINDED BY DARKNESS, so much that I bought the second one as soon as I could.

A WICKED GOOD PLAY begins quietly. Reverend Thomas Wilson is enjoying watching deer in the pasture across the road from his home when he discovers that these deer aren't "normal." They seem almost tame, even allowing a mysterious human form that appears among them at night to leap about near the herd, and also get close enough to pet a buck with a large rack. Odd, indeed. (I live in an area where school absences have been excused during hunting season, and hunters roam the woods around our home each November, so I'm very familiar with deer and the peculiarity of what Wilson is observing.)

After someone shoots into the pasture at night, Thomas suspects hunters are illegally "spotlighting" the tame deer and shooting at them from the road.

During this same time period, Thomas and his wife Amy attend a high school play because the daughter of his good friend, Larry Meyer, is one of the performers. The play? Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians." As you may remember, a performer dies early in the play as part of the plot. BUT it soon becomes obvious that the first dramatic death in this play is not simply good acting. The teen is a murder victim.

This was tough to take. For me, anything involving children--including teenagers--in truly evil doings (and I don't mean Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys doings) inserts an especially dark element into fiction. I have long had a tough time with it, especially since the first well-publicized school shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas. A friend's daughter died there. As a result, I've thought about the issue a lot. Anyway....

Reverend Wilson has a difficult time convincing law officers of the significance of what's going on in the pasture across the highway, or even of his ideas about the death of the young actor in the play. However, darker and darker events soon have cops taking extra drives by the Wilson home. A member of his congregation begins investigating illegal hunting in the area on Rev. Wilson's behalf, and Amy Wilson has joined her husband in seeing peculiar activities taking place across the road.

Going any further would begin to be a plot spoiler, so I won't do it. Did I enjoy this book as much as the first one? Yes, but mainly because I like Thomas and Amy Wilson and all their friends so much. For that reason it left me with good memories, in spite of the darkness of the plot. But then, that's life, isn't it?

If you enjoy Jan Karon's books (Father Tim) as well as a complex and intense mystery novel, this book is highly recommended. If you enjoy interesting and likeable people doing their best to sort out and mitigate evil in the world, this book is highly recommended. If you enjoy "not quite cozy" mysteries, this book is highly recommended. If you enjoy novels with subtle spirituality, this book is highly recommended.

Radine Trees Nehring
http://www.RadinesBooks.com
Blog for readers and writers: http://radine.wordpress.com
Read A RIVER TO DIE FOR, newest entry in the
"Something to Die For" Ozarks mystery series.

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