I sure wish the Pirate Liturgy featured in Mark Schweizer's fourth Liturgical Mystery The Soprano Wore Falsettos (#496) was coming soon to a church near me. Arrrgh! I'd be there w' me matey and me faithful Holy Parakeet in the blink of Davy Jones' eye, I would! (And wouldn't you know that we were discussing the term Paraclete in EfM just this week!) Warning! If you take your religion seriously, without a hint of humor, this mystery series is definitely not for you!
This book made me laugh out loud several times, with my husband prompting me each time,"Oh, did you get to the part where....?" We both agreed that the Pirate Liturgy was a vast improvement over the Clown Liturgy in the first book of the series, although we enjoyed that one, too. But since we both belonged to a Savoyard group in our days of living in New England, you've got to know that a Gloria based on the rousing tune "For He Is A Pirate King" from the Pirates of Penzance was bound to win over our hearts.
There is a credible mystery buried in the fun, and an end I did not see coming to make the story as much as a draw as all the liturgical and musical "in" jokes. (Loved the name of the new bar Hayden Konig's alter ego detective found in this book!) I can't wait to read about the further adventures of Police Chief Konig and the other denizens of St. Germaine, North Carolina. I wish he'd come and be the substitute organist at our church! Enjoyable on so many levels.
And finally, thanks, Mark Schweizer, for giving the nod to Gerald Finzi, one of my favorite Twentieth Century composers. Definitely worth giving a listen to if you've never been fortunate enough to run across him.
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