Finalist for a Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence
A dead body falls out of a wall while the video crew for a reality tv show hunts for the ghost of Saint Mungo’s Church. Assistant pastor Tom Book, called back from vacation to cover for his missing boss, is suddenly in the midst of a murder investigation with links to long-buried secrets, and shady dealings in the present day.
Even with the help of the church’s chair of property, a not as retired as he appears former undercover cop, and his best friend, a feisty funeral director who knows all the right and wrong people, Tom is nearly killed more than once. He’s also confronted with hard truths about his own past, and roused from the doldrums of grief to embrace a new chapter in his own life.
The Book of Answers is set in a mostly fictional United Church of Canada congregation, in the very real town of Oakville, Ontario. The author, a minister with decades of experience, claims only small parts of the story are based on actual events and people. Even so, the novel offers an honest and sometimes hilarious view of church life, except for the inconveniently placed corpses.
