This is a marvelous book, with vivid characters and a compelling mystery at the center of the story.
Pickard jumps back and forth between the present and 1987, when the naked body of a young woman is found in a blizzard. That discovery changes the lives of three high-school students. Rex Shellenberger, who finds the body; Mitch Newquist, who mysteriously leaves town the next day; and Abby Reynolds, Mitch's girlfriend, who can't understand why he would leave without even saying goodbye. The town authorities -- the sheriff, the judge, and the doctor (who happen to be the fathers of Rex, Mitch, and Abby) -- arrange for the unidentified girl to be given a decent burial in the Small Plains cemetery. Over the years, her grave becomes something of a shrine, and a legend grows that "the Virgin of Small Plains" performs miracles and heals people.
Jump to 2004, when Mitch returns to town for the first time since his disappearance. In different ways, Rex's and Abby's lives have always revolved around the unsolved mystery of the Virgin's death and Mitch's departure; his return triggers a series of investigations, and much panic on the part of those who have been keeping secrets for seventeen years.
The relationships among these characters, especially the three principals, are sharply drawn and interesting enough to be a fine story in their own right, and I was so caught up in their present-day story that I almost forget about the central mystery of the Virgin's death. When Pickard does begin to resolve that story in the final chapters, though, the revelations are all the more devastating because we've come to care about the characters so deeply.
This is a very fine novel; highly recommended, even to those who think they don't like mystery novels.
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