Book #4 - The Chocolate Snowman Murders by JoAnna Carl

Today was a "snow" day. I put snow in quotations because they canceled school at dinner time last night just thinking it might snow. The funny part is that it didn't start snowing until 10:00 today and stopped by 2:00. Even funnier than that is that they've already canceled for tomorrow. My theory is that all of the superintendents' of schools wanted to stay up late to watch the National Championship Football game. With it being a "snow" day, I thought that a book with "snowman" in the title would be a sensible choice. JoAnna Carl wrote another entertaining, short, murder mystery. I am stuck on several series like this one (others include Joan Fluke and Diane Davidson Mott) because they are fun, light, easy reads where you never have to worry about the main characters being killed off. What's funny about all of these is that the leading women in each of the series are the chief "investigators" in every murder in their small-town communities. You'd think they'd learn and butt out. As I was reading this, I was thinking about what I would blog and how I could possibly entertain my regulars (led by my Dad) with a no-brainer book. And just as my mind floated to that concern, on page 111, the authors, "soap box" rang out in the voice of Lee Woodyard. When the local, flashy, new-age pastor walked in with an air of narcisism, Lee's thoughts were the following, "I'm not an expert on theology, but I always distrust churches built as personality cults. And the secondhand reports that if we do good and believe in the correct theology, God will reward us with prosperity and happiness. This doesn't jibe with my observation that the most loving and faithful poeple around will still have lots of troubles and woes. They usually just cope with them better." Who says you can't learn a powerful message from a trivial novel.