Faint echoes of Jan Karon's Mitford novels and Chris Bohjalian's Midwives
surface in this treacly kickoff novel in Parr's projected new series. In 1830, midwife Martha Cade discovers that her 17-year-old daughter, Victoria, has run away from their home in Trinity, Pa., with a traveling theater troupe. After three months of fruitless searching, Martha returns to Trinity to resume her midwifery duties and face the town gossip. In her absence, a young doctor has set up a rival practice and a minister and his wife have established a school for orphan street boys from New York, thereby encountering local prejudice. A bitter conflict develops between some townspeople and a mayor who may or may not have romantic feelings for the widowed Martha. Martha views her midwifery as a Christian calling, focuses on the sisterhood of the birth process, and believes in giving oneself over to God's wisdom while maintaining faith no matter the circumstances. But the recitation of a plethora of characters' birth stories produces an effect something akin to the viewing of other people's vacation slides, particularly when none of the laboring mothers plays a crucial part in the story itself. Furthermore, Martha is prone to dishing the kind of gossip she despises from others, and she displays an incredible ability to perform heroic obstetrics and solve everyone else's problems while not doing much to locate the missing Victoria. While Martha's difficult choice between doing God's work and being a mother may resonate with some readers, flat writing and a lack of tension weigh down a narrative in which there's never any doubt that good will ultimately triumph and faith will be rewarded. (Feb. 26)
