Sins of a Shaker Summer: A Sister Rose Callahan Mystery

""We might find that all we have here is a group of secretive Believers who value their personal success more than their vows,"" says Eldress Rose Callahan with a resentful eye on Brother Andrew Clark, the new trustee of North Homage, sent to the Kentucky village by the Shaker's Lead Ministry to help expand their medicinal herb industry. While most of the village considers Andrew a godsend to the dwindling brethren, Rose has misgivings about him and the experimental herbs he's cultivating. Her apprehension grows when two children become deathly ill after ingesting a substance she is certain came from Andrew's Medicinal Herb House. Uncovering the mystery will require a lot of snooping and a little help from her perky prot g, Gennie (who left the flock for a worldly life in Death of a Winter Shaker). Here, as in Woodworth's two previous Depression-era Shaker titles, readers are treated to a vivid look into a fascinating culture while enjoying a first-rate mystery. (Apr.)